IMPHAL, Nov 10: The bandh to protest against government’s alleged inaction to trace the whereabouts
of two missing teenagers evoked near total response in the valley districts of strife-torn Manipur on
Friday.
Two teenagers, Maibam Avinash and Ningthoujam Anthony, had been missing since November 5 and
remain untraced till Friday even though the police had arrested two suspects in relation to their
disappearance.
Except sporadic incidents of supporters blocking roads, no untoward incident related to the bandh was
reported from any part of the state.
The bandh was called by a Joint Action Committee (JAC) formed in connection with the missing of the
two teenagers. It began from 4 am on Friday and will continue till 1 pm on Saturday.
Earlier, the (JAC) imposed a nine-hour bandh, but it was extended till 1 pm on Saturday , alleging that no
positive response came forth from the state government.
The bandh hit normal life across the five valley districts and in Jiribam district.
All kinds of passenger service vehicles including buses of Manipur State Transport stayed off the road.
Traffic volume was also thin today.
Shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in these districts. Financial
institutions and oil pumps also had their shutters down.
Apart from almost all the important markets in these districts, local markets in the outskirts of the
district headquarters also wore a deserted look with vendors keeping their business suspended during
the day, endorsing the bandh.
Women vendors of the Khwairamband Keithel including Ima Keithels (all-women-run markets) came out
on the streets and imposed the bandh by preventing movement of vehicles.
A large number of police and security forces armed with riot gear patrolled the empty streets of the
state capital as the government took up extra security measures in view of the bandh.
Meanwhile, supporters imposed the bandh by stretching logs and bamboo, piling stones and burning
used up tyres and debris on the streets across the valley districts.
Meanwhile, many civil society organizations and local youth clubs endorsed the bandh while urging the
state government to trace the two missing students and hand them over to their respective families at
the earliest.
They also expressed disappointment over the failure of the state government to take appropriate action
whenever people belonging to the Meitei community went missing in the Kuki dominated areas since
the outbreak of the ethnic violence.
They recalled the case of missing two students, Hijam Linthoingambi (17) and Phijam Hemanjit Singh
(20), who had gone missing on July 6 this year and still have not been found even after suspects
involved in their abduction were arrested.
The two students were presumed murdered after photos of them in the custody of the armed
miscreants and lying on the ground surfaced on social media recently.
As per a police report, as many as 32 persons, excluding the recent two teenagers, have gone missing
since the outbreak of the violence on May 3 this year. (NNN)
