IMPHAL, Sep 14: Police today foiled yet another attempt by students of different institutes to take out a rally towards the Chief Minister’s bungalow demanding implementation of ILPS in the State at Kwakeithel bazar. Police were seen deployed near Imphal College since morning to stop the students marching on Tiddim road towards Keishampat.
At around noon, students of Regular English High School and Little Flower School formed human chains in front of their respective schools for a few minutes before they were asked by the police to go inside their school campus. Soon after police closed the main gates of these two schools, a group of students of Comet School came up to Imphal College gate in the form of a rally. To prevent any kind of untoward incident, police pushed back all the students towards their school gate.
Later at around 2 pm, students of Imphal College came out from their campus and took out another rally towards Kwakeithel along with students of other schools. The protesting students were joined by some womenfolk on their way towards Kwakeithel bazar. At Kwakeithel bazar, police barricaded them and asked them to return stating that it was not permissible to take out the rally beyond Kwakeithel bazar. Although, the rallyists protested the order, police gave them five minutes to leave the area. However, the rallyists tried to forcefully move towards Keishampat instead of following the police order. As such, police threw some smoke bombs to disperse the irate rallyists.
However, the protesters dismantled the makeshift gate and BJP flags erected at Kwakeithel bazar to welcome BJP National president Amit Shah before it was set on fire. The protesters also pelted stones and fired slingshot projectiles towards police. Police then fired several rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. A student of Imphal College was briefly detained by the police. However, he was released after a group of women protested his detention. The students then burnt tyres and other objects in the middle of the road disrupting traffic movement. Police diverted all the vehicles and passers-by coming on Tiddim road to other routes during the protest.
As the police forced the students to return, they pulled down all the BJP flags put up on the road median on their return to their respective institutes. The students also dismantled the welcome gate of BJP at Kwakeithel Heinoukhongnembi. On the other hand, a group of women tried to block the road at Kwakeithel bazar. However, police prevented them from doing so.
Nobody suffered major injury during the protest.
