Manipur violence: Woman shot dead in Imphal West
In a separate incident, the home of a security official was set on fire on Thursday, a day after a mob tried to loot an armoury he was guarding.
A woman was shot dead near a school in Manipur’s Imphal West district on Thursday morning, a day after schools reopened in the state, reported the Hindustan Times.
The police said the incident took place around 8.40 am near the Sishu Nistha Niketan School. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum identified the woman as Donngaihching, and said she hailed from the Kuki-Zo community.
The forum said that she “did not leave Imphal despite the ethnic cleansing in Manipur’s capital because of a mental illness”.
Manipur has been witnessing ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities since May 3. Widespread incidents of violence and arson continue to deepen the crisis in the state. Over 130 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 have been forced to flee their homes.
The woman in the Imphal West district died a day after a 27-year-old civilian was killed by security forces. He was part of a mob of 700 people who were trying to loot weapons from a police armoury in Manipur’s Thoubal district on Tuesday night. An Assam Rifles soldier was shot in the leg and 10 others were injured.
On Thursday, another mob set the house of a security official on fire in the Thoubal district, according to PTI. The official, a member of the Indian Reserve Battalion, was part of the unit that stopped the looting of the armoury on Tuesday night.
In view of these incidents, the Manipur government has extended the ban on the internet for five more days till July 10. The ban has been extended several times since it was imposed on May 3.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea by two Manipur residents against the repeated internet shutdowns in the state, reported PTI.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra noted that a division bench of the Manipur High Court is already hearing the matter, in which an expert committee was directed to examine whether the internet could be restored in the state.
The judges allowed the petitioners to approach the High Court in the matter.
In their petition, Chongtham Victor Singh and Mayengbam James had said that the internet shutdown was “grossly disproportionate” as it interfered with the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression, and the right to carry on any trade or business using the constitutionally protected medium of the internet.
