Manipur: 3 militants arrested for 'threatening' to bomb Sangai tourism festival
Imphal (PTI): Security forces have arrested three militants, including a woman, for allegedly threatening to trigger explosions during the ongoing Sangai tourism festival in Manipur, police said on Thursday.
The Manipur Police, along with Assam Rifles, conducted a joint operation and arrested three active cadres of the banned KCP (MFL) on Wednesday, they said.
The action came following a video posted on Facebook by a user on November 21, which contained threats to bomb the festival being held from November 21 to November 30, a police officer said.
The militants were apprehended from Imphal East, Imphal West and Thoubal districts, he said.
Further investigation is underway.
The Sangai tourism festival has been boycotted by displaced persons and civil society organisations in the northeastern state.
More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur since May 2023.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
