 |
| Widow of the slain teacher, L. Rajemkhup Kom, mourns next to her husband’s coffin at RIMS morgue. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Imphal, Nov. 30 : Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh today promised the Kom Rem community, traumatised by the death of a teacher, that a security post would be opened at Thayong village in Imphal East for their protection.
The chief minister also assured the community that a probe would be initiated to find out if any of the Kuki militant groups with a suspension of operation agreement with the government was involved in the killing of L. Rajemkhup Kom. The 52-year-old former chief of Thayong village was a government schoolteacher.
Two suspected Kuki militants came to the house of Kom, forced him out of home and shot him dead at the gate of his house in Thayong village in front of his family members on the night of November 25.
The Kom Rems, a small ethnic community, see the murder as an attempt by Kuki militants to bring the Kom Rem people under the nomenclature of Kukis. They also felt that the attack was an act of retaliation by the Kuki militants to objections raised by the Kom Rem villagers to an attempt by some Kuki groups to bring Kom Rem chiefs under the Phailengmol Area Chief Association, a Kuki village chiefs’ association.
The villagers also charged that Kuki militants were collecting illegal taxes from the villagers in the area and abducting villagers for ransom.
Angered by the killing, members of the Kom Rem community yesterday took out a procession near the mortuary of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences. The community today accepted the body of the former village chief after Ibobi Singh assured them that a security post would be opened at Thayong village for their protection.
Sources said the chief minister asked the superintendent of police, Imphal East, Th. Radheshyam Singh, to make a spot verification of the area and submit a report within two days about the opening of the security post. Ibobi Singh also directed the police officer to find out about the involvement of any Kuki group in the killing. The chief minister also assured a delegation of the Kom Rem Union, Manipur, that he would take up the issue of violation of ground rules by the Kuki groups at the next meeting of the ceasefire monitoring group. He has promised compensation to the bereaved family.
The Imphal East SP said security measures were tightened in the villages where Kom Rems were residing to prevent further harassment by armed groups.
Sit-in
Residents of Khurai Thangjam Leikai staged a sit-in in Imphal East demanding the release of power department executive engineer Thangjam Tomalchand and assistant engineer Leitanthem Mangi. The two engineers are in the custody of the United Peoples Party of Kangleipak since November 6.
The outfit said the two were taken hostage as part of the group’s “investigation” into financial irregularities in the power department.