Manipur On Edge: Meitei Group Issues Ultimatum, Kuki-Zo Body Puts Funerals On Hold

All five districts of Imphal Valley are under curfew while internet services have been suspended following violent protests over the death of six persons.

Imphal:Manipur is on the boil again as mobs carried out violent protests and arson on Saturday night against the backdrop of the killing of three women and as many children allegedly by militants in Jiribam district.

On Sunday morning, the situation remained calm but tense in all five districts of Imphal Valley, where an indefinite curfew has been imposed and internet services suspended following violent protests after the discovery of the bodies of six persons, three women and children each, allegedly abducted and killed by militants in Jiribam.

Here are the top 10 updates in this big story:

1. Mobs set ablaze the residences of three more BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley even as security forces foiled the attempt of agitators to storm the ancestral residence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
2. Enraged people torched the houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam's BJP MLA Y Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha's BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district and Khundrakpam's Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, PTI reported quoting officials.
3. The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a Meitei Group issued an ultimatum, demanding military action on militants within 24 hours.
4. "All the representatives of the states and all the MLAs should sit together and take some decisive action to resolve this crisis as soon as possible," said COCOMI spokesperson Khuraijam Athouba. "If they don't take any decision up to the satisfaction of the people of Manipur, then they will bear the brunt of the people's discontentment. We have set a 24-hour ultimatum for the Government of India and the Government of Manipur to take some decisive action and military crackdown against all armed groups."
5. The funeral of 10 Kuki-Zo youths, alleged who were killed in an alleged gunfight with CRPF on November 11, will not be conducted till their post-mortem reports are handed over to the families, a leading organisation representing the community said on Sunday. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a key organisation of the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur, convened an emergency meeting to decide its future course of action regarding the funeral of the 10 people, killed in Jiribam district.
6. "Today, we will have a meeting on how to proceed with the funeral. We have not received the post-mortem examination documents yet. Without those, we cannot touch the bodies because if we tamper with the bodies, there could be some legality issues," ITLF spokesperson Ginza Vualzong told PTI. Accordingly, the bodies have been kept in the local hospital morgue for the time being after their arrival here on Saturday, he added.
7. On Saturday night, protesters also advanced towards Chief Minister N Biren Singh's ancestral residence at Luwangshangbam in Imphal East but were stopped short of 100-200 metres by security forces, who fired several rounds of tear gas shells, rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.
8. Security forces have intensified patrolling in parts of Imphal and increased deployment at many of the residences of legislators which were attacked on Saturday as well as all major roads leading to the secretariat, state BJP headquarters and Raj Bhavan.
9. Curfew was imposed for an indefinite period in Imphal East and West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching districts of Imphal Valley "due to developing law and order situation".
10. The state administration suspended internet services temporarily in seven districts in the wake of protesters storming the residences of state ministers and MLAs. (With agency inputs)

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