Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the security situation in Manipur with top officials and directed them to take all possible steps to ensure peace in the state, sources said on Sunday.
Shah had earlier cancelled his election rallies in Maharashtra and headed back to Delhi as the situation in the northeastern state continued to be volatile.
The fresh wave of violence and protests erupted after the bodies of six people who were allegedly abducted and killed by militants in Jiribam district were discovered.
On Saturday night, irate mobs attacked and set on fire the houses of three BJP legislators and a Congress MLA even as security forces thwarted an attempt by the agitators to storm the ancestral residence of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.
The houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam’s BJP MLA Y Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha’s BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district and Khundrakpam’s Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar in Imphal East district were attacked by the protesters, reports said.
Though the agitators moved towards Biren Singh’s ancestral house at Luwangshangbam in Imphal East, they were stopped by security forces around 100-200 metres away.
Reports quoted officials as saying that the security officials had to fire several rounds of tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.
On Saturday morning, agitators had ransacked the houses of three legislators, including R.K. Imo, son-in-law of the chief minister. Residences of three ministers—Sapam Ranjan, L. Susindro Singh and Y. Khemchand—were also targeted by the protesting mob.
Internet services remained suspended in Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur even as an uneasy calm prevailed in these districts on Sunday.
The bodies of two women and a child, who had been missing since November 11 from a camp for the displaced, were recovered from Barak River in Jiribam on Saturday, while three other bodies, including a woman and two children, were found on Friday night.
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