Stir against 'Manipur' being erased from bus turns violent
IMPHAL: Five protesters were hospitalised Sunday after scuffling with security forces near Raj Bhavan in Imphal as the public agitation demanding an apology from governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla over "Manipur" being scraped off the windshield of a state transport corporation bus on May 20 lapsed into violent unrest.
Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters converging on the historic Kangla Gate, around 150 metres from the Raj Bhavan gates, when they refused to retreat.
The influential Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), which spearheaded the protest, had given the governor 48 hours to publicly apologise for what it said was an insult to the state and its people.
"The governor continues to disregard the sentiments of the people by his silence.
He and his administration have tarnished the state's historical and cultural legacy... The inquiry commission set up by the govt to probe what happened (at Gwaltabi) is not enough as it does not mention anything about penalising those who were involved," a protester said.
A Manipur state transport bus ferrying journalists to Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul district was allegedly stopped at Gwaltabi checkpoint and ordered to remove "Manipur" from the windshield.
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Amid outrage, the home department set up a two-member inquiry committee to "examine facts and circumstances involving security personnel and the Manipur state transport bus".
A COCOMI delegation is scheduled to travel to New Delhi to meet MHA officials on Tuesday to push for completion of "pending political and security processes" necessitated by the ethnic crisis.
COCOMI condemned the use of "mock bombs and tear gas on non-violent protesters, particularly women, during Sunday's demonstration". It said, "The deployment of such aggressive crowd-control measures against unarmed civilians, many of whom were mothers and elderly women, is unbecoming of a democratic and sensitive administration."
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