Villagers free two from police custody in Manipur, Nov 25

In a rare event, more than two hundred villagers of Zoumun attacked Churchandpur police
station and freed two persons from the lockup yesterday evening. Several rounds were fired to
disperse the agitated villagers. One policeman is said to be injured in the incident. According to report, the incident occurred when the district police along with IRB jawans arrested two youths on the charge of hijacking two vehicles utilized in construction for Khuga Multipurpose project on
Thursday morning. The two are identified as Haokhanlem(30) and Mangkhanpao(25) of Zoumun village in Churchanpur district. It can be mentioned that volunteers of Khuga Dam Action Committee, a group comprising of villagers likely to be affected by the dam, had threatened the workers that construction should be stopped and later hijack two vehicles used by the project director at 11 am on Thursday. As word of theirs arrest spread, villagers of Zoumun and
Geljang areas in three trucks came to the police station in the evening at around 8pm and stating that they are innocent and did not belong to the KDA Committee started demanding their immediate release. The police however refused to set free and herded them out from the police station. Infuriated at the police refusal, the villagers attack the police station pelting stone and damaging windows and wind shield of vehicles kept at the station. One police driver
Paothankup was injured in the stone throwing. With the increased tempo of the villagers police resort to firing several rounds in the air but these could not contain the villagers. Instead they stormed the police station, break open the cell locks keeping the two youths and took along with them to the village. It was reported that one of the trucks they were traveling on met an incident hitting a tree but no one was seriously injured.