New Delhi: Silverstsn (who identifies by a single name), a third-year Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) student who “received severe injuries” on his back after being allegedly hit by a tea-gas shell during a protest against the purported murder of two Meitei students in Manipur, said he was recovering in a hospital in Imphal, when contacted by ThePrint over telephone Thursday.
Talking about Wednesday’s protest, Silverstsn said, “It was a peaceful protest march and we didn’t have any weapons. We came to protest against injustice. We are emotional, two students were murdered and the police aren’t doing anything.”
The 22-year-old alleged: “But the forces opened fire [pellet gun], threw tear-gas and started beating up all the students. We didn’t come from one organisation, we were just students, unarmed.”
Receiving treatment at the same hospital is 16-year-old Loitongbam Kishan, a school student studying in class 12. A family friend who claimed to be aware of his condition told ThePrint over the phone that Kishan was “critical”.
“He was shot in his right shoulder. His muscles have been torn and his bone is also injured,” claimed S.N. Meitei. He added: “The bullet got stuck on his shoulder. They [the security forces] shot at him from very close.”
A photo of Kishan accessed by ThePrint appeared to show the top part of his shoulder bleeding, with a large gaping hole in it. In some of the videos accessed by ThePrint, he is shown being rushed to the hospital, purportedly soon after being shot at.
In a statement posted on social media platform X (previously Twitter) Wednesday, Manipur Police said “There were several protests and rallies in connection with the viral photos of dead bodies of two missing students. Miscreants in the crowd used iron pieces and stones (marbles) against security forces. In retaliation security forces used minimum force to disperse the congregation and fired some tear gas shells in which some people got injured.”
In another statement posted on X the next day, Manipur Police said: “A meeting of senior officers of CAPF was held at PHQ, Imphal, to discuss the present law and order situation in the state. The officers were apprised of the unfortunate injuries of students as well as security personnel. The forces discussed to use minimum force in dealing with the public, especially students. Manipur Police appeals to the students to co-operate with law enforcement agencies in maintaining peace and bringing normalcy back early. Any miscreants taking advantage of the current situation will be firmly dealt by police.”
The police have also registered a series of cases against the “miscreants”, according to sources in Manipur Police.
Sources also told ThePrint that not all the protestors were students. “There was huge mobilisation for the protest and people who aren’t students also joined the protest,” the source said.
ThePrint has reached the Manipur deputy general of police’s (DGP) office for comment. The report will be updated once a response is received.
Wednesday’s protest — against the purported killing of two Meitei students, 19-year-old Hemanjit Vietimboy, and a 17-year-old girl, who had been missing from early July — was called by the student bodies All Manipur Students Union, Manipuri Students Federation, Democratic Students’ Alliance Of Manipur (DESAM), Kangleipak Students’ Association, Students’ Union Of Kangleipak and Apunba Ireipakki Maheiroi Sinpanglup, against alleged police inaction in the case.
However, DESAM president, Leishangthem Lamyanba Meetei, told ThePrint that “many students [from schools and colleges] came by themselves, voluntarily. There is a lot of unrest and anger here”.
ThePrint had earlier reported that over 60 people, including policemen, were injured Wednesday when the protest turned violent.
According to a list of participants in Wednesday’s protest accessed by ThePrint, Silverstsn and Kishan among 50 of the injured are protestors, mostly students.
Photos of the injured accessed by ThePrint show what appear to be baton marks and pellet gun injuries among the protestors and of security personnel allegedly beating the agitators.
The protest triggered fresh violence in the state which has been rocked by ethnic clashes between the state’s non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki communities for the past more than four months.
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In solidarity with students
Violence broke out in Manipur on 3 May between the state’s majority Meitei and tribal Kuki communities — following a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ taken out to oppose the demand for inclusion of Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category and for what was described as an effort to secure the rights and constitutional safeguards of the ethnic Kuki and their sub-tribes.
According to police data, more than 200 people have been killed, over 1,200 left grievously injured and over 50,000 forced to abandon their homes in the violence.
A few days after mobile internet was restored in troubled Manipur, photos of the two Meitei students, who went missing on 6 July after they left their home on the pretext of going for tuition classes, surfaced on social media.
In one of the photos, 19-year-old Hemanjit Vietimboy, and a 17-year-old girl, appeared to be sitting on the grass inside what appeared to be an armed camp, with two armed men standing behind them. In another photo, they appeared to be slumped on the ground, seemingly killed.
The two had been last tracked to Churachandpur, a Kuki-dominated area.
Family members of the two had earlier alleged that “the police have failed us”.
In a statement Monday, the Manipur Government said that the case was already handed over to the CBI and that the investigation is on.
Led by special director Ajay Bhatnagar, the agency’s team reached Imphal Wednesday to investigate this case.
Meanwhile, talking about Wednesday’s students’ protest, S.N. Meiti said, “People came to the streets themselves, student bodies didn’t ask for it”.
On Thursday a round of talks and meetings were held among the six student bodies which had called for Wednesday’s protest to discuss the violence.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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