New Delhi: Internet has been suspended in five districts and the Imphal West district of Manipur has come under curfew from 4.30 pm on Saturday, November 16, following protests in the Imphal Valley regions after six bodies were recovered.
The bodies were suspected to be of those belonging to the Meitei community who went missing from a shelter camp in the Jiribam district on November 7. Among the six dead are three children, Deccan Herald has reported. Some reports have it that one is an eight-month-old child’s body.
At 5.15 pm on November 16 (today), the state’s chief secretary Vineet Joshi issued an order calling for temporary suspension of internet and mobile data services in the “currently affected districts of Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Kangpokpi, and Churachandpur of Manipur” for two days.
Three bodies were found floating in the Jiri river a day ago, on November 15.
Protests had begun a day ago as Meitei people alleged that the N. Biren Singh government, its police and the security forces had failed to rescue the missing – who they alleged had been abducted by “Kuki insurgents.”
The six were realised as having gone missing after a gun battle between CRPF and a group of presumably Kuki fighters whom police identified as “armed militants”. Ten suspected Kuki militants were killed, and later, the bodies of two Meitei men were discovered.
The curfew orders came after the Union government asked security forces deployed in Manipur to restore law and order and take all steps towards that end.
