Manipur Youth Congress members stage protest outside CM bungalow over abductions

At least six members of the Manipur Youth Congress on Saturday afternoon banged the gates of the chief minister's bungalow here to symbolically ''wake the CM up'' and demanded the immediate release of civilians held hostage by militants.

Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh, however, was not inside the complex, which also houses the CM secretariat, when the incident happened.

The Youth Congress members banged the gates of the complex and raised slogans like ''wake up, sleeping CM'' and ''we condemn killing of civilians, down down BJP''.

They also held placards that read ''BJP Hatao, Manipur Bachao'' and ''Youth Congress demands immediate release of civilian hostages''.

The CM's official residence is located less than 100 metres from the Manipur Police headquarters.

However, after a brief scuffle with the police personnel deployed in the area, the protesters were pushed back to some distance.

Manipur Youth Congress president W Anand, who led the protesters, said, ''We had come to wake up the CM and BJP MLAs who are in deep slumber. There is no rule of law in the state.''.

More than 38 people were abducted and held hostage by armed groups in Kangpokpi and Senapati districts on May 13, hours after three church leaders were killed in an ambush in Kangpokpi district.

Of them, 31 people have been released, including 12 Naga women and 16 Kukis. Six Naga men, however, continued to be held hostage and their whereabouts are not yet known.

Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki tribes in the state, also claimed that 14 people from the community continued to be held hostage by Naga groups.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)