| Teenager murdered after arrest, say Manipur protesters |
| Imphal, March 5: Protesters today blocked the Mayai Lambi Road, connecting Imphal with Thoubal, over the killing of a boy by security forces at Phoubakchao village in Manipur’s Imphal West district yesterday. Police claimed that the boy, identified as Md Azad, was killed in retaliatory firing by a combined team of police and the Assam Rifles while residents accused the police of killing the boy after arrest. The police also claimed to have recovered a 9mm pistol with three live rounds from the boy while the residents alleged that the police placed the weapon near the body after he was shot in the village. There are also contradictory claims about the boy’s age. His family claimed that he was 13 and studying in Class VII in a local school while the police said he was 18. Thoubal superintendent of police Clay Khongsai said the boy fired at the team while its members were searching the village for Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF) militants on the basis of a tip-off. “He (the boy) was killed in retaliation. The boy was a member of an extortion gang and he was wanted by the police,” the SP said. Protesting against the killing, a joint action committee of the area blocked the Mayai Lambi Road from 6am till 5pm. After a meeting at Phoubakchao, the committee demanded a judicial inquiry into the killing, punishment to the personnel involved and payment of ex gratia to the boy’s family. It warned of an intense agitation if the state government did not meet the demands by tomorrow. The boy’s family is yet to accept the body, which is lying at the mortuary of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences here. Commercial vehicles stayed off Mayai Lambi Road today. Some private vehicles plied on it in the afternoon. There was no report of any violence. |