GUWAHATI, 21 June — Authorities fearful of fresh violence kept the capital of India’s northeastern state of Manipur under curfew for a third day yesterday as soldiers patrolled with orders to shoot curfew violators.
Doctors finished autopsies on 17 people killed on Monday when police fired on rampaging demonstrators who torched the legislative assembly and party offices to protest the widening of a cease-fire with a rebel tribal group. A spokesman for the rugged, far-flung state bordering Burma said officials were discussing with leaders of various groups ways to release the bodies to relatives with the curfew still in force.
Authorities said the capital had been quiet since police and protesters clashed briefly near the airport on Tuesday. “There’s no report of any new violence,” a police official said. But witnesses said the situation was tense in the capital of the former princely state now riddled with 25 percent unemployment and illegal trafficking. “It’s pretty bad here, the curfew has not been lifted and security officers are moving around the city warning people that they will shoot on sight if they come out of their house,” Bablu Loitongbam, a human rights activist said. Witnesses said hill-ringed Imphal was littered with burned tires, broken glass and tree trunks erected as barriers. The funerals of those killed took place yesterday in the capital Imphal amid heavy security, police said.
A curfew has been clamped on the city to avert any further violence and shoot-on-sight orders issued. Manipur police chief A. Siddiqui said the cremation of the bodies began at noon (0630 GMT) yesterday under tight security. “We might lift the curfew for an hour or so from 4:00 p.m. (1030 GMT) to enable the people to purchase essential commodities. There will be night curfew again as a precautionary measure,” Siddiqui said.
Student and social and human rights groups had urged that the curfew be eased to allow a public funeral for those killed, but authorities said they were fearful such an event could become another flash point for violence. The violence in the state of 2.6 million people, mostly Hindu, was set off by the central government’s move last week to widen a four-year-old cease-fire with separatist Naga rebels in the state of Nagaland to neighboring areas, including parts of Manipur, dominated by Naga tribes people.
Officials have repeatedly denied such motives. Students and social groups in Assam’s two districts bordering Nagaland launched a 48-hour general strike against the widening of the cease-fire. However, the left parties yesterday charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the center for mishandling the Manipur crisis and demanded its immediate review.
The center’s decision to expand the area of cease-fire agreement in the northeast continued to draw flak, even from some of its allies too. Yesterday, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) politburo said the people of Manipur have to be categorically assured that there would be no tampering with the unity and integrity of the state.The Communist Party of India (CPI) also blamed the central government and some of its allies for the current situation in Manipur.
