School set on fire in Moreh, houses burnt to ground in Jiribam
Imphal: The northeastern state of Manipur witnessed fresh violence with a school building at T Motha near Moreh being set ablaze by unknown assailants on Wednesday.
According to Kashmir Media Service, apart from the violence in the border town, abandoned houses and shops were gutted in Kalinagar, in the Jiribam district.
This spate of violence comes since a beheaded body was recovered last week, putting the already tense state further on edge. The person was missing since June 6 and the violence that recently erupted forced over 1,000 people to flee to Assam and other parts of Jiribam.
The publication, citing people in the know, said that around 9:00pm on Wednesday unknown assailants had set the newly constructed Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya school building on fire near Moreh town. The building had not been inaugurated yet.
Moreh, which happens to be one of Manipur’s largest commercial hubs, has been closed since violence broke out in the state, starting from the Churachandpur district on May 3 last year.
HT, citing sources, said that Border Security Force (BSF) men have planned to set up a post in the newly made school building in the T Motha village which is largely occupied by the Anāl community. This village lies just opposite an Assam Rifles post.
Manipur has been seeing ethnic clashes between the majority Meiteis and Kukis, who are dominant in some hill districts. Two hundred and twenty people have lost their lives and at least 50,000 have been displaced so far.
Recently, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh’s security convoy also came under attack.
