Miscreants torched 14 excavators and a trailer on NH-37 in Imphal
Manipur: A 25-year-old man who was shot 17 times during communal violence in Manipur is being treated at a government hospital in neighboring Mizoram.
On May 14, the victim, identified as Pauginmuan, was shifted to the Aizawl Civil Hospital from Churachandpur district in the adjoining state for better medical care.
According to the official, he absorbed at least 17 bullets fired by a locally-made rifle during a heated altercation in a township on May 3. The bullets hit him in the back and neck.
However, four of them were discharged from Churachandpur District Hospital. Pauginmuan was sent to Aizawl because doctors in Churachandpur said they lacked the necessary equipment to retrieve bullets lodged near the spinal cord and arterial veins. According to the official, efforts are being made to recover the bullets on Monday.
Media spoke to the victim before he was sent to the operating room during the day. Pauginmuan, a member of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo tribe, said he and his colleagues were protecting their village when they were attacked by armed miscreants after the end of a tribal solidarity march on May 3.
Pauginmuan said that while two of his colleagues were killed in the incident, he was injured.
Clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3 after a ‘tribal solidarity march’ protesting the Meiti community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status in the hilly areas.
At least 73 people were killed, 231 injured and 1700 houses including religious places were destroyed in the ethnic violence.
The eviction of the Kuki people from the reserve forest area had sparked minor protests before the violence.
Meiteis make up about 53 percent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals – the Nagas and Kukis – make up another 40 percent of the population and live in the hilly areas.
