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India Riots Kill 13, Injure 47
GUWAHATI, India, June 18 (News Agencies) - At least 13 people were killed and 47 wounded when police opened fire Monday in India's Manipur state after protestors burnt down the legislative assembly building, news agencies reported.
An indefinite curfew was imposed in the northeastern state's capital Imphal as up to 5,000 protestors rampaged through the streets, setting fire to official residences and political party offices.
Police said two state ministers, who were among many others inside the assembly building when it was set on fire, have sustained 60 to 70 percent burn injuries and were being treated in hospital.
Issac Sahah, an official at the police control room in Imphal, said at one point hundreds of protestors had broken through a security cordon and tried to set fire to the chief minister's residence.
Inspector General of Police R. Baran said at least 20 members of the security forces were critically wounded when they tried to stop protestors.
Police and paramilitary commandos opened fire to disperse the mobs.
"Paramilitary and police columns have been patrolling the streets even as an indefinite curfew was enforced this afternoon," Baran told AFP.
"The people are agitated and there is tension all over Imphal, although the situation is gradually coming under control," he said.
Army helicopters were conducting aerial surveillance of trouble spots and the army had been put on standby.
"Anybody found violating the curfew would be shot at as the police has been given orders to strictly enforce the directive. The shoot-at-sight orders would be enforced until the situation is reviewed Tuesday morning," Baran said.
The paramilitaries were brought in to enforce the curfew order, while all flights into and out of Imphal were cancelled.
By evening, the security forces were able to disperse the protestors with troops being deployed in strength.
"However, we are taking no chances as you never know when the trouble will flare up," said Baran.
A police official at the state control room in Imphal said there were no fresh reports of violence late in the evening. Heavy rains also started pouring at night forcing people to take shelter.
The streets were deserted, but women torchbearers, who patrol the streets as a daily ritual in the state, went about their duty undaunted by the curfew orders, residents said.
The violence in Manipur came on the third straight day of a general strike in Manipur to protest against the federal government's extension of a ceasefire with a faction of the regional armed separatist group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).
The strike is supported by more than 80 local groups.
The 12-month extension was agreed with a faction led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, known as the NSCN (IM) after their initials.
Under the new agreement, the ceasefire will be implemented across India and not just in the province of Nagaland -- a move that has worried the neighboring states of Assam, Manipur and Tripura.
In New Delhi, the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party issued a statement denying that the ceasefire extension had any hidden agenda.
"There is no plan to divest any portion of Manipur or any other state and include them in the state of Nagaland," the statement said.
"The extension of the ceasefire to other areas is meant merely to bring about peace in those areas. Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani in New Delhi sought to defuse tensions saying that the Nagaland ceasefire would not affect the territory of other adjoining northeastern states.
Responding to reporters' queries about the violent protests in Manipur, he said the ceasefire extension did not mean that the demand by some Naga rebels for extending Nagaland's area had been conceded.
"The demand has not been conceded nor would it be conceded in the future," he added.
Manipur has been under direct rule from New Delhi for several weeks following a political crisis that brought down the state government.
The powerful All Manipur Student's Union (AMSU), spearheading the current strike, has chalked out a series of further protests from Tuesday onwards to oppose the extension of the truce.
The NSCN-led insurgency has claimed more than 25,000 lives in India's northeast.
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