‘Noise protest’ rocks Manipur valley districts, police fire tear gas

People bang utensils during a protest in Imphal Friday

GUWAHATI: Thousands of people across Manipur’s five valley districts took to the streets on Friday evening for a “noise protest” invoking traditional Kangla practices to express public anger over the ongoing crisis in the state and against govt’s failure to restore normalcy.Police fired tear gas shells at Kangla Fort in Imphal as tensions mounted. No injuries were reported.The protest was called by a civil society organisation, Federation of Haomee, which asked people to make noise between 7:30 pm and 8 pm.Residents banged utensils, struck electric poles with hammers, beat drums, sounded vehicle horns and sirens and shouted slogans.The protest was also at Singjamei, the assembly constituency of chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, where residents joined the demonstration against govt’s handling of the prolonged ethnic conflict.Many protesters then marched towards Kangla, the ancient political and cultural centre of the erstwhile Manipur kingdom, a few metres from Lok Bhavan and the chief minister’s secretariat.Security forces stopped several of them at Palace Compound, Moirangkhom and Keisampat junctions. Hundreds more reached the gate of Kangla but were not allowed into the fort premises.The protesters demanded the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state, the identification of illegal immigrants and the abrogation of Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with armed groups. They also criticised govt’s failure to resolve the ethnic conflict.

The demonstrations reflected growing public frustration over continued violence and demands for decisive action on security following days of sit-ins and rallies over the killing of three Meitei woodcutters at Sunurok on Oct 19.