The curfew was only lifted on Sunday. The killing of a man during stone-pelting between the villages in Thoubal district on October 18, and the arson that followed, have put both on high alert amid fears of communal tension. One village is dominated by Hindus, the other by Muslims. A playground separates them, with security forces preventing the two from clashing again. Residents have retreated to their respective strongholds. The administration has ordered all licensed gun holders to surrender their weapons.
Khemchand, people from both villages said, assured them that the administration would call a peace meeting soon. Chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh on Wednesday visited both villages and spent around half an hour each meeting residents from both sides.
With (assembly) elections approaching, a potential flare-up between the two communities within the valley could be serious. Both JACs have met the chief minister and state home minister Govinddass Konthoujam over the last week. “While watching the concert, after the fourth song, someone started pelting stones at the crowd. It came from the Sangaiyumpham side. In hindsight, it looks like they knew what was going to happen. The organisers used the stage and urged people not to pelt stones and the song continued. I was also there. But a few minutes later, there was more stone pelting. The singers ran when large stones started falling on the people in the ground. Our boys were angry and they also pelted stones. Within a few minutes, we also heard that they had started burning one shop and two houses in the town (Khangapok Cherapur) area. The people from Sangaiyumpham even fired guns. Thoubal police and district administration are trying to take the first step towards peace by getting Pangal students to return to their schools in Khangabok.
But there has been no violence after the night of October 18,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity. Hours later at around midnight, a Meitei man – Rakesh Laishram, 23 – a local hero from Khangabok who represented Manipur in sports at the state level, was found dead. Because other such Meitei and Pangal villages do not have this problem and have even come together in peace meetings, “It is a localised conflict for now. Because both villages agreed to maintain peace before the CM, still, the chances are low. Because both communities live in the same valley districts, it could be challenging. Because they fear mobs will burn the killer’s house, leading to more violence, police have not identified who fired the shot that killed Laishram. Due to the clash, the students had also stopped crossing their village to attend school in the neighbouring village.
Laishram, who had left home around 8pm to watch the football match and then the concert, was found with a bullet injury to his head on the narrow road next to the ground, according to the Thoubal police. That is when Laishram died of a gunshot,” said Thokchom Kiran, co-convener of Khangabok JAC. M Prabhakar, superintendent of police (Thoubal) district, said the fight was a drunken brawl and not a communal clash.
Our boys noticed that before the stone pelting, villagers from Sangaiyumpham were leaving the ground.
Thokchom Sujata Devi, a prominent Meira Paibi leader and the former president of Imagi Meira, an influential Meitei women-led grassroots collective in Manipur, who had blocked the road with other women protesters until Sunday, criticised the administration.
