5 locals, 1 cop Injured as Manipur Police Crack Down on Locals Protesting Land Survey

A clash erupted between villagers and the Police in Manipur on Friday leaving five civilians and an assistant sub-inspector injured. The incident took place during a land survey by government officials for a corporate project, as per reports. 

According to a report in the East Mojo, the locals were injured after the police used tear gas shells. 

Quoting a local resident, East Mojo reported, the incident took place along the Imphal-Moreh National Highway at Sora in Kakching district. The officials of the state’s survey department, arrived there with a large contingent of police personnel to conduct a land survey for the construction of a mega food park project at Yaithibi Loukol. 

The clash broke out after some locals of Sora in Kakching district and Koijam Maring village in Tengnoupal district opposed the land demarcation survey being carried out by the officials, the report said.  

While the locals insisted the process to be resumed after reaching a mutual understanding, the officials ignored their insistence, leading to clash, locals claimed, according to the report. 

The survey was already pending following strong objection from the villagers, the Nagaland Post reported.  

The large number of villagers then clashed with the police who blocked them from entering the area, the Nagaland Post reported. The police reacted by firing tear gas shells and mock bombs towards the protesters. Retaliating to the police crackdown, the locals resorted to pelting stones, during which the additional SP of Kakching district police sustained minor head injuries. He was immediately rushed to the hospital. 

As the officials continued the survey work,  the agitated villagers went to the road along the highway and imposed a snap blockade in protest, the Nagaland Post reported. The locals started a fire on the road and piled up stones, logs and bamboos, which resulted in hundreds of vehicles being stranded on the Imphal-Moreh section of NH-102 in Manipur’s Kakching district. 

The locals have reportedly been protesting against government’s project, demanding return of their land. They claimed that they gave up the land for the purpose of construction of a permanent campus of the National Sports University, the Nagaland Post reported. However, as the land would actually be used to build a Mega Food Park, villagers, whose paddy fields would be affected, have been objecting to it. 

The construction of the permanent campus of the National Sports University has been shifted to Imphal West district. 

After the government shifted the location of the promise project, the villagers, particularly land owners, have been demanding return of the land to them, which has not been heeded.