[ad_1]
After being stopped by police on their way to Churachandpur by road on Thursday afternoon, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in the city by helicopter In the evening, five hours behind schedule, on the first day of his two-day visit to Manipur.
Once there, he said he traveled to Manipur to listen to the people. “People from all communities are very welcoming and loving. Very unfortunate that the government is stopping me. Manipur needs to heal. Peace should be our only priority,” he said in a tweet.
Rahul, who is visiting the conflict-ridden state nearly two months after violence first broke out, is the most prominent national opposition leader to visit Manipur so far. According to his team’s initial travel itinerary, after arriving at Imphal airport, he was supposed to reach the Koki-zumi-dominated Churachandpur hill region by 11:45 am, visit the relief camps and meet the affected families there. After that, he was supposed to return to the valley and visit the relief posts in the Bishnupur district controlled by Mete by 3:30 pm.
He arrived at Imphal airport on Thursday and his convoy started heading towards Churachandpur by road, a distance of around 55 km which required traveling through Imphal West and Bishnupur districts.
However, the police stopped his convoy in front of the Bishnupur police station, about 23 kilometers from the border to Churachandpur district, which led to tension and confrontation.
A crowd gathers to demand unimpeded passage for Rahul’s convoy, which leads to clashes with the police. Tear gas shells were used to disperse the crowd, and a security guard accompanying the Congress convoy was injured during the incident.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Bishnupur Superintendent of Police Heisnam Balram Singh said the decision not to give the go-ahead for security reasons was taken that morning with the district administration and in coordination with the advance security liaison team.
Besides referring to the explosion of an IED that occurred on that highway on June 21 in Kwakta – on the border of Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts – he said that the situation in the border area had been “getting worse” in the past few days.
I came to listen to all my brothers and sisters in Manipur.
People from all communities are very welcoming and loving. It is very unfortunate that the government is stopping me.
Manipur needs to heal. Peace should be our only priority. pic.twitter.com/WXsnOxFLIa
– Rahul Gandhi June 29, 2023
Although the situation in the state is generally improving, in the past two days it has worsened. Because of the rain and the relative peace, some people head out from the valley to the fields to farm, even in areas close to the hills. We advised them to go only when we coordinated properly with our police counterparts in Churachandpur, but they got up early and went early. Then, in the hill villages, there is doubt whether they really come for farming or other activities, and they feel they must defend their villages, so they shoot two or three rounds early in the morning. This same morning at 5:30 two or three volleys were fired from the hillside at a village along the ridge here. In this scenario, after our evaluation, we decided that it would be advisable for VIPs to travel by helicopter instead… We couldn’t take that risk,” he said.
After the standoff, the convoy returned to Imphal where Rahul took a helicopter to Churachandpur, where he arrived around 4:30 pm and visited relief camps at Greenwood Academy, Toypung and at Government College, Churachandpur. He also attended a short meeting with civil society organizations there.
[ad_2]
