IMPHAL, June 29: The JAC against Firing at Nungei Meira Paibi has strongly refuted the charges levelled by a rival JAC formed against the death of a teenager, Md Arif Khan, stating that its convenor and six other persons were responsible for the current enmity between the two communities in the locality.
In a press release issued today, the former JAC said that a team of its members led by the convenor, Sanjoy Khaidem, and a media team were assessing the damages caused to houses in the Meitei village due to stone pelting and gunfire from the side of the muslim locality overnight, when a muslim woman requested that the media persons also take stock of the damages done on their side.
The group of media persons and JAC representatives obliged the request with a clean heart after considering the restoration of good faith during a meeting of community leaders in the presence of local police officers at Thoubal Police Station and the age-old good relationship between the two communities. The invitation ultimately turned out to be a ploy to frame the JAC, the press release said.
The woman led them to a place where a group of people from her community had already assembled wielding guns, swords and other deadly weapons and they were in a very agitated mood, it added. The JAC member and media team were rescued by security personnel stationed there and some friendly muslim individuals, the release said. As soon as the group crossed over to their village, the rivals unleashed a fusillade of stones, it claimed.
Listing the name of 10 persons from the muslim village for setting them up, it said, they should be held accountable for the whole incident and given fitting punishment by the administration. As soon as the 10 along with three others who were responsible for the firing at meira paibi volunteers are arrested, the seven named in the memo submitted by the JAC against the killing of the teenager will surrender themselves to the police, it said.
