Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 28: The location where Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh was supposed to hold a function on Friday in the state’s Churachandpur district was vandalised and set on fire by a mob. Today, the chief minister was slated to unveil a gym and sports complex.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, which has been protesting the BJP-led state government’s survey of reserved and protected forest and wetlands, is said to have led the mob violence. The state administration has also been blamed by the tribal forum for destroying churches.
In Churachandpur, Section 144 has been implemented and internet services have been momentarily suspended following the violence.
The enraged mob was observed destroying furniture within the facility, including seats, and setting fire to sports equipment inside the recently built gym.
The crowd was promptly dispersed by local police, but the facility had already suffered damage from hundreds of flaming chairs. The Churachandpur administration increased security in the district as the situation became out of control, but the tension has not abated.
The freshly installed open gym at the PT Sports facility in New Lamka, which Biren Singh is scheduled to formally open on Friday afternoon, was partially destroyed by the enraged mob, police told news agency PTI.
The district administration has not yet confirmed whether the violence has caused the chief minister’s programme to be cancelled.
The forum called for an eight-hour strike action in the district on Friday beginning at 8 am and said that it had been forced to carry out a non-cooperation campaign against the government in order to impede its projects.
The Kuki Students’ Organisation has also backed the forum, accusing it of having a stepmotherly attitude towards the state’s tribal people.
According to reports, the Manipur government razed three churches in the state earlier this month on the grounds that they were built illegally.
