 "Union minister's house in Manipur set on fire; fresh clashes in Imphal")
Union Minister of State for External Affairs R K Ranjan Singh’s house in Imphal town was vandalised on Thursday night by a mob which also tried to burn it down, officials said.
Security guards and firefighters managed to control arson attempts by the mob and save the minister’s house from being gutted, they said.
On Friday evening, a mob clashed with Manipur’s Rapid Action Force in Imphal after it had torched a warehouse. Police used tear gas shells to disperse the mob as it was believed that it would target other properties.
“The riot occurred near the Imphal palace grounds,” officials said.
Fire personnel and security forces rushed to the site and brought the warehouse fire under control and prevented it from spreading to the neighbouring houses. The property belonged to a retired high-profile IAS officer from the tribal community.
The Union minister cancelled all his programmes scheduled in Kochi and said the clashes were not communal but due to a misunderstanding between two communities. He told PTI Video, “I am trying to bring peace and stop violence since May 3 (when ethnic clashes began in the state) … this is all a misunderstanding between two communities. The government has set up a peace committee, the process is on. Civil society leaders are sitting together.”
Condemning the killing of nine people in the Khamenlok area on Wednesday, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said search and combing operations are on by security forces to nab the culprits.
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Sources on Friday said all-out efforts had been made by the Centre to bring back normalcy through a number of initiatives that include enhanced area domination in fringe areas and higher reaches by forces, mobilisation of additional troops and close monitoring by senior officials.
The Union home ministry has also rushed Director General of CRPF S L Thaosen to Manipur to assess the situation and for better utilisation and coordination of central forces, the sources privy to the development said.
At present, around 30,000 central security personnel are deployed in Manipur for law-and-order duties besides state police forces.
Supplies of essential items and movement of security forces have been hit in several areas of Manipur because of blockades of both the National Highway leading to the state by tribals as well as at least six arterial roads by women-led vigilante groups.
Sources added that in the past one week, 4,000 trucks carrying essential supplies reached the valley via NH 37, which is the only road that is open for now.
The Congress on Friday hit out at the "double engine" BJP governments in Manipur and at the Centre and asked when will Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak out on the situation in the violence-hit state and make an appeal for peace.
Congress leader P Chidambaram said the double-engine formula failed in Karnataka and the BJP was shown the door by the people of the southern state and "the double-engine government is failing the people of Manipur".
Several civil society groups have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form a court-monitored tribunal to bring back normalcy in the state and demanded financial compensation to those affected.