Manipur cops fire at mob trying to loot arms, one dead

GUWAHATI: A 27-year-old man died after police fired at a mob attempting to raid an armoury of the 3rd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) in Manipur's Thoubal district on Tuesday.
The incident came hours after arsonists burned down the Churachandpur house of a spokesperson for one of the two ceasefire-bound Kuki outfits that called off their blockade of NH-2 last Sunday.
The mob trying to storm the IRB camp at Wangbal, about 30km from Imphal, had attacked security personnel with stones and slingshots, prompting pol-ice to first use tear gas and then fire at them, sources said.

One killed
A 27-year-old man died in police firing on a mob attempting to raid an armoury of the 3rd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) in Manipur’s Thoubal district on Tuesday, hours after arsonists burned down the Churachandpur house of a spokesperson for one of the two ceasefire-bound armed Kuki outfits that called off their blockade of NH-2 last Sunday.
The mob trying to storm the IRB camp at Wangbal, about 30km from Imphal, had attacked security personnel with stones and slingshots, prompting police to first use tear gas and then fire at them, sources said. The deceased, Abujam Ronaldo of Heirok in Thoubal, died of a gunshot wound to the head while being taken to an Imphal hospital.
Protesters blocked the Imphal-Moreh national highway soon after in a bid to stop the movement of Assam Rifles and other security forces. The Thoubal administrationimmediately reduced the curfew-free window in the district to morning till noon.
The foiled attempt to loot the IRB armoury is suspected to be part of a backlash against the four casualties in a clash between two groups of “village volunteers” along the Bishnupur-Churachandpur border during the weekend.

In Churachandpur district, Kuki National Organisation (KNO) spokesperson Seilen Haokip said the arsonists who torched his houseand parked car at Songpi may have done so because they possibly didn’t “agree” with the stand taken by his outfit and the United People’s Front, another Kuki group in ceasefire with the state government and the Centre. The two outfits lifted their blockade of NH2, which links Imphal with Nagaland’s Dimapur, in response to Amit Shah’s appeal to ensure that supplies to Manipur weren’t hit. No member of Haokip’s family was at home at the time of the attack.
The oubreak of violence came on the eve of the scheduled reopening of classes 1 to 8 in schools as part of the N Biren Singh government’s plan to restore normalcy with a series of confidence-building measures, including special deployment of forces to protect farmers and removal of all illegal “private bunkers”.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) opposed the move to demolish the bunkers, saying these were necessary to safeguard villages facing repeated attacks.