Union Min’s house vandalised: Ranjan rushes back to Manipur

IMPHAL: Union Minister of State for External Affairs RK Ranjan Singh’s house in Imphal town was vandalised by a mob which also tried to burn it down, officials said.

Security guards and firefighters managed to control arson attempts by the mob and save the Minister’s house from being gutted on Thursday night, they said.

The development comes after the burning of two houses, and clashes between the Rapid Action Force of Manipur and a mob in Imphal town on Thursday afternoon.

The mob which roamed the town late Thursday also clashed with security forces, officials said.

Reacting to the developments, RK Ranjan Singh said, “I am trying to bring peace and stop violence since May 3 (when ethnic clashes began in the State) this is all a misunderstanding between two communities. The government has set up a peace committee, the process is on. Civil society leaders are sitting together.”

The Minister, currently in Kochi to attend a party event cancelled all programmes in Kerala to return home, stating, “There was an incident at my residence.”

He said, “That (house) is (from) my own hard-earned money. I am not corrupt. No one is corrupt in this regime. If this was something religious, then I am a Hindu. The attackers were Hindus. So, this is not religious. This is a mob.”

We will talk to all communities and find a way out, he said.

Sound of firing could be heard in Imphal East district till the early hours of Friday as forces fired numerous rounds of tear gas shells and mock bombs to disperse angry locals protesting the killing of nine civilians on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, several civil society groups urged PM Modi to form a court-monitored tribunal to bring back normalcy and sought compensation to affected.