Double for Manipur

Hosur: It was a memorable day for the Manipur boys and girls as they finished on top in the epee and foil group events respectively in the 17th National junior fencing championship at the Adhiyamaan Engineering College campus here on Friday.
In the final stand on, the Manipur boys defeated Madhya Pradesh 15-9 for the Epee group title, while the girls edged out Kerala 15-13 for the top slot in the foil group.
The results: Boys: Epee (final): Manipur bt Madhya Pradesh 15-9. Semifinals: Madhya Pradesh bt Tamil Nadu 15-14; Manipur bt Maharashtra 15-11. Girls: Epee (final): Kerala bt Punjab 15-9. Semifinals: Punjab bt Manipur 15-12; Kerala bt Tamil Nadu 15-10. Sabre (final): Punjab bt Kerala 15-11. Semifinals: Kerala bt Maharashtra 15-12; Punjab bt Chandigarh 15-11. Foil (final): Manipur bt Kerala 15-13. Semifinals: Kerala bt Punjab 15-8; Manipur bt Chandigarh 15-11.
Final standings: Boys (Epee): 1. Manipur; 2. Madhya Pradesh; 3. Tamil Nadu; 4. Maharashtra. Girls (Epee): 1. Kerala; 2. Punjab; 3. Manipur; 4. Tamil Nadu. Foil: 1. Manipur; 2. Kerala; 3. Punjab; 4. Chandigarh. Sabre: 1. Punjab; 2. Kerala; 3. Maharashtra; 4. Chandigarh.

Jessami land issue settled, village chief wants IRB, VDF in village

IMPHAL, Nov 3 : An amicable settlement has been brought to the controversial issue of the land encroachment at Jessami Village, Ukhrul district, by Nagaland Armed Police, NAP, said the chairman of the Jessami Village Council.

Informing this during a press conference today at the Manipur Press Club, the village chairman, Kanmi Wezah, said that an understanding has been reached at a village to village level.

However there are still some instances of intimidations from village guards of a nearby Nagaland village, he said.

Further he revealed that the rest house which was taken over briefly by the NAP has again been occupied by 111 BSF.

Besides this a unit of the IRB was also posted at the Jessami village and attached to the Jessami Police station he added.

While lauding the effort of the government, and the prompt actions it took up, the chairman also appealed to the concerned government authorities to station the IRB unit there permanently viewing the ceaselessly sensitive situation which arise frequently in the border village and also in the interest of whole of Manipur.

Further while highlighting the hardship faced by the people of the Jessami village in terms of health, communication and issue of encroachment etc, the chairman revealed that Jessami village which is 116 km from Ukhrul and 200 km from the state capital has been doing without the service of even a single doctor.

Village are compel to travel long distance for treatment he said urging further the conversion of the village PHSC to PHC level with the posting of full strength of doctors and staff.

With regards to the sensitive border issue he also appealed to the concerned authorities to make the SDO and SDPO offices at the village functional.

He also hoped the village stands to gain from the recently held recruitment rally of Village Defence Force in which 59 persons of the village took part.

In connection with this issue the chairman also drew the attention of the chief minsiter through a memorandum submitted to his office calling for stationing of Village Guards at Jessami, to ward off frequent harassments and intimidations by the neighbouring villages in Nagaland.

He said these intimidations include threats to kill the villagers of Jessami while they were working in the field, shots fired at the village while constructing irrigation canal at Thetsii wet paddy field etc.

Inpui students also oppose class boycott

Imphal, October 24 : After some student organisations have raised their voices against the closure of educational institutions in Manipur, particularly in the valley by the All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU), Manipuri Students' Federation (MSF) and Kangleipak Students' Association (KSA), another student body has also come out openly against the class boycott.

The Inpui (Kabui) Students' Union has said that though the Union is very much against the killings and also opposes such incidents of fake encounter, the closure of educational institutions as a mark of protest is not the right step.

The Inpui students' body said that the closure of the educational institutions has caused irreparable loss to the student community.

The students' body then said that hampering the academic career of the students is not only the means to achieve the peoples' demands.

The Inpui students expressed concern for the class X and class XII students who would be facing Board and Council examinations soon.

The Inpui students' body appealed to AMSU, KSA and MSF to resort to other democratic means of agitation, and leave the students alone.

It is pertinent to note that All Tribal Students Union, Manipur (ATSUM) will be convening a public meeting in connection with the class-boycott issue on October 24 at Adimjati Campus in Imphal while the Democratic Students' Alliance, Manipur (DESAM) has convened a similar meeting on November 2 on the same issue.

Curfew after clash in Manipur

Imphal, Oct. 23: Indefinite curfew has been imposed at Kwakta and its surrounding villages in Bishnupur district after a skirmish between a man and a woman at a local fish farm yesterday snowballed and threatened to explode into a communal clash.

Md Salim from Kwakta had allegedly misbehaved with 18-year-old Th. Hema from Moirang Santhong at a fish farm last evening.

When Hema returned home and reported the matter to her family, a group from Santhong took Salim to their village club and allegedly beat him up.

As news of Salim’s assault reached Kwakta, hundreds of villagers, armed with axes, sticks and stones descended on Santhong, damaged the club, and rescued him.

The mob also dragged away Hema’s elder brother, Th. Shyamkishore Singh, along with them.

As the situation threatened to get out of hand, a police team rushed to the area and fired several rounds in the air, ordering the warring groups to return home.

Curfew was imposed around 8pm to prevent further clashes.

Around 10pm, the police recovered a badly wounded Shyamkishore Singh, who was lying unconscious near a cremation ground in Kwakta.

He was taken to an Imphal hospital, where his condition is stated to be serious.

“Thousands of residents of Kwakta stormed Santhong club and took me to their village. I was blindfolded and beaten up. I lost consciousness. I believe they threw me away thinking that I was dead. I was lucky,” Shyamkishore Singh said from his hospital bed today.

Villagers of Santhong are now demanding that Salim and those involved in the assault be punished.

A large number of armed police personnel were deployed at Kwakta and the neighbouring village today.

No one ventured out because of the curfew, but the situation remained tense.

The local MLA from the ruling Congress, M. Prithviraj Singh, and CPI member N. Mangi Singh, representing the neighbouring constituency of Kumbi, today visited the two villages and tried to defuse the tension.

Mob torches house of suspected Manipur rapist

KEIRAO - Irate mob burnt down the house of a person suspected of raping and murdering an 18-year-old woman, in Manipur’s Keirao District.

The victim Okram Tamphasana, wife of Chinglensana alias Naocha was found murdered inside a paddy field at Keirou Langthrei Loukon on October 20.
Her body is reported to have been recovered with visible symptoms of rape and several injury marks from a blunt weapon on her head.
Angry residents after getting to know that the suspected murderer was absconding burnt down his house.
“Culprit won’t be spared easily. We have burnt down his house because he had raped a girl and afterwards brutally killed her,” said Kamala Devi, a resident.
They say they will outcast the family.
The agitated mob stopped only when the fire tenders and the local policemen arrived at the spot.
“We are here to give protection to the people. As mob has already gathered, we need to take up necessary precautions so that the violence doesn’t spread further,” said S. Lalmohon Singh, sub-fire officer.

Manipur house torched

Imphal, Oct. 22: Angry residents of Keirao and its neighbouring villages in Imphal East today torched the house of a suspected “rapist-murderer” after a search this morning failed to locate the person.

Hundreds of residents from five villages around Keirao set the empty house of Pukhram Momba Singh on fire this afternoon after dismantling a portion of it and destroying household articles.

Momba Singh, a resident of Keirao Bitra Mayai Leikai, is suspected to have raped and murdered his sister-in-law, 18-year-old Okram Tamphasana Devi on Tuesday.

Tamphasana Devi’s body, stripped to her lower garments, was recovered from a drain in Keirao area that morning. Police recovered a piece of cloth belonging to the victim and a blood-stained trouser of the accused from his house the same day.

Another mob lynched a suspect, Moirangthem Tiken, in the rape-cum-murder case of another woman, Sapam Memton Chanu, 35, this evening. Chanu’s body was found near Pukhao Khabam in Imphal East yesterday.

Housewife’s body found in Manipur

Imphal, Oct. 21 : The battered body of a young housewife, stripped to her lower undergarments, was found alongside a drain near a paddy field in Imphal East this morning.

Okram Tamphasana Devi, 18, a resident of Serou in Thoubal district, went missing after she left an Imphal court with her brother-in-law, Pukhrambam Momba Singh, yesterday.

When her body was found, her torso looked untouched — though she had injury marks on her face — but the garment covering her lower body was missing. Police later found her phanek, a traditional skirt-like garment, lying a little away from her body. A blood-stained stone was also found near the spot.

From the manner in which the body was found, the police suspect the woman was raped before being beaten to death, probably by Momba Singh.

“Only a post-mortem report can confirm the rape ,” a police official who inspected the body said.

Momba Singh is the husband of Bimuta Devi, younger sister of Tamphasana’s husband, Okram Chinglensana.

Chinglensana in now in jail, having been arrested about three months back on charges of having links with militants.

Okram Indrani Devi, Tamphasana’s mother-in-law, had arrived in Imphal only yesterday.

Indrani Devi today said she, with Tamphasana and Momba Singh, had gone to an Imphal court in connection with her son’s case yesterday.

While she stayed back at the court to talk to their lawyer, Momba Singh and Tamphasana left for his house. Since then the two were missing until Tamphasana’s body was recovered this morning.

A police team visited the suspect’s house in Imphal today looking for Momba Singh but he could not be traced. Though the police have not disclosed any further detail, a source said the police had recovered some material evidence from Momba Singh’s house.

“We have made some progress in the investigation. We are looking for the brother-in-law for questioning. He is absconding,” a police source said.