StatesManipur
Manipur moves Kamjong SP out after Chassad killing; Naga women protest the transfer
The state replaced the district's police chief on Sunday, a day after a Kuki man was killed and houses were set alight in Chassad. By evening, Naga women were protesting at the district headquarters.
Key points
- Kamjong SP Tholu Rocky was transferred "with immediate effect" on Sunday.
- A 36-year-old Kuki civilian was killed and four others injured in the attack on Chassad.
- Suspected militants set fire to 15 houses in the village on Saturday night, officials said.
The Manipur government on Sunday transferred the Superintendent of Police of Kamjong district, a day after suspected militants attacked Chassad, a Kuki village in the Naga-majority border district, killing a 36-year-old civilian and injuring four others.
The order, issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, moved Manipur Police Service officer Tholu Rocky out of Kamjong “with immediate effect until further orders”. He will become additional director of the Manipur Police Training College. Jay Barrage, an IPS officer who was additional SP (Law and Order) in Imphal West, takes charge as SP (in-charge) of Kamjong.
Officials said the attackers also set fire to 15 houses in Chassad on Saturday night.
Protest at the district headquarters
The transfer drew an angry response of its own. On Sunday evening several Naga women gathered at the Kamjong district headquarters to protest against the move. They alleged that the officer had been shifted after a Kuki MLA asked the Chief Minister and the state’s Home Minister, Govindas Konthoujam, to remove him.
Three attacks in four days
Chassad has been at the centre of a sharp rise in violence in Kamjong this week. On Thursday evening gunmen ambushed two couples on motorcycles between Molnoi and Phaikoh, killing Hatneikim Haokip of Molnoi and wounding her husband. A Chassad couple, D Paokhothang Haokip and Boishi Haokip, went missing in the same attack.
On Saturday afternoon gunmen fired on Chassad, wounding four people, among them the village chief, Thangjahao Haokip. Kuki bodies have blamed the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) for the attacks on the village. The deaths in Kamjong follow the killing of four Naga men in an attack on Makui Ashang village in Kangpokpi district on 10 October, for which suspected Kuki militants were blamed.
What the new SP inherits
In a district where Kuki villages sit among Naga settlements, even a routine police posting can become a point of dispute between the two communities, and the protest on Sunday evening showed how quickly the change at the top was read along those lines.
Barrage takes over a tense posting. Security reinforcements were moved into the Chassad-Mongkot Chepu sector after Saturday’s firing, and the Chassad couple who went missing on Thursday were still being searched for by security forces and villagers on Friday.