IT News
Imphal, Feb 20:
At what could be term as another poll violence, unknown miscreants shot at the father of National People’s Party (NPP) candidate, Lourembam Sanjoy Singh, contesting from Andro assembly constituency Friday night. Following that, another group of people dismantled the house of some supporters of the rival candidate whom they suspected as the perpetrator of the poll violence. Around 6 people including a woman were reported injured.
As per report, unidentified gunmen were suspected to be supporters of the rival candidate of L Sanjoy fire rounds of gunshots when Lourembam Samjai, the father of the NPP candidate was discussing election-related matters with some of the supporters at his residence at around 11 pm.
74-year-old Lourembam Samjai, received a bullet injury on his right shoulder. He is currently undergoing treatment at SHIJA Hospital at Langol.
NPP leaders, including its national president, Conrad K Sangma, and Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar Singh visited the injured candidate’s father.
Talking to the media on the sideline of their visit, Sangma said that pre-poll violence is intensifying in Manipur. He said that he has visited Manipur five times since 2002 in connection with the election but he had never seen the kind of pre-poll violence occurring nowadays.
Considering that controlling the situation is the need of the hour, NPP will draw the attention of all concerned and higher authorities such as the CEO of Manipur, Election Commission of India and MHA, the CM of Meghalaya said.
He strongly condemned the attack on NPP candidate, L Sanjoy stating that “the incident simply reflected the frustration of certain individuals. In a democracy, we believe in the casting of votes through speech and expression using their own conscience. As such this kind of behaviour is strongly condemnable.”
He further said that authorities concerned should take cognizance of the prevailing unwanted scenario of the state as it would hinder in conducting a free and fair election if such situation continues.
Joykumar said that the incident occurred Friday night at Andro constituency where an NPP candidate was attacked when he was sitting with his father and some Meira Paibis. Carrying out pre-poll violence has become a habit nowadays as the recent incident wasn’t the first time and is occurring in other constituencies too. Both people of the state and politicians should take the matter of pre-poll violence seriously, he expressed.
Later, a delegation of the party led by Sangma met the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manipur in connection with the attack.
“Apprised the Chief Electoral Officer of Manipur about the attack on our candidate’s father last night and on the series of incidents that took place around Manipur causing great concern for the safety of our candidates and the people,” tweeted Sangma.
The incident comes a week after a low-intensity bomb was exploded near the residence of NPP workers in Khabeisoi village in Imphal East district.
Earlier, the party had also issued a statement drawing the attention of the authority that its party candidates and workers are abused and intimidated in a targeted manner by several militant groups in favour of BJP.
Meanwhile, BJP candidate Th Shyamkumar condemn the attack on his workers by supporters of NPP candidates. Those injured in the attack by the NPP supporters are undergoing treatment at Raj Medicity and Advance Hospital.
This is the third incident of gun-related violence that occurred in the state ahead of polls. A student was shot dead in poll related violence in Heirok village in Thoubal district last December. The second incident occurred in Samurou in the second week of January wherein two persons including a close aid of Manipur Agriculture Minister was shot dead by unknown gunmen.
