Manipur:50 students hurt in lathi-charge after protests over death of two youths

Police fired several rounds of teargas and batons to disperse protesting students who took to Imphal City's streets to protest the killing of students by suspected Kuki militants.

Seeking punishment for perpetrators of the "cold-blooded" killing of two teenagers, students marched towards the chief minister’s secretariat around noon before the police stopped them. Sporadic clashes between police and protestors continued till late evening.

The two students are identified as Hijam Luwangbi Chanu (17) and Phijam Hemanjit Singh (20), who went missing on July 6. Luwangbi was a student of TG Higher Secondary school, while Hemajit was studying in Montessori School at Takyel. Both schools are located in Imphal.

The duo were seen riding a bike at Keishampat in Imphal city around 8.15 am on July 6 and CCTV footage captured their last visuals in the bike at Nambol in Bishnipur district, as per police.

Luwangbi’s mobile phone was last located in Kwakta in Bishnupur, bordering the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district, according to police.

Confirming the veracity of the viral photo, a statement from the CM’s secretariat said the case had already been handed over to the CBI. A search is on to nab the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Internet data ban, lifted on September 23, has again been reimposed for five consecutive days.

Manipur has been witnessing ethnic violence since early May. More than 175 people have been killed and several hundreds injured since ethnic clashes broke out in the northeastern state on May 3, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.

Meiteis account for about 53 percent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley, while tribals, including Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 percent and reside mostly in the hill districts.