Manipur groups to launch stir if govt fails to locate two missing teenage boys

Imphal, Nov 13 (IANS) Various civil society organisations (CSOs), NGOs, and women's bodies in Manipur have threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if the security forces fail to locate the two teenage boys missing since November 5.

Various CSOs, NGOs, social activists, student bodies, politicians and Meira Paibis, a powerful women's organisation, together under a single platform held a meeting at Akham Ground in Imphal West and asked the government to find the two missing youths -- Avinash Maibam (16) and Ningthoujam Anthony (19) -- by November 19.

The public meeting also resolved to form a Joint Action Committee to spearhead the agitation on this count.

A spokesperson of the public meeting said on Monday that the meeting also resolved to approach the court and other platforms at the national and international level to find out the whereabouts of all missing persons, to solve the hardships faced by the people due to the ongoing ethnic crisis.

“If the government fails to find the two missing youths by November 19, all CSOs, political parties, student bodies and the participants of the public meeting will launch a massive agitation,” the spokesperson said.

The security forces have so far arrested three suspects in connection with the reported abduction or disappearance of the two teenagers from Imphal West district.

The police suspect that the detainees are cadres of a militant outfit under Suspension of Operation (SoO) with the government.

The family members of the missing students said that the two boys had gone towards Sekmai on November 5 in the morning on a two-wheeler, but did not return home.

The family members also filed a missing complaint at the local police station after there was no response from their mobile phones.

BJP MLA S. Rajen Singh and the missing youths' families had earlier met Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey and sought her intervention.

A combined force of the police, Assam Rifles and CRPF is conducting search operations in different districts to locate the youths.

The police have recovered the mobile handsets used by two youths from Senapati district.

It may be recalled that Manipur witnessed massive students’ agitation in September to protest the killing of two students, including a girl, who had gone missing on July 6 at the height of the ethnic violence. The photographs of their bodies were circulated on various social media platforms on September 25, triggering outrage among the student community.