Fresh violence in Manipur's Jiribam within 24 hours of agreement to restore normalcy
Imphal, Aug 3: Shots were fired and an abandoned house was torched in Manipur's Jiribam, triggering fresh tensions within a day of the Meitei and Hmar communities reaching an agreement to make efforts to restore normalcy in the district, officials said on Saturday.
An abandoned house in Lalpani village was torched by armed men on Friday night, they said.
"It is an isolated settlement consisting of few Meitei houses, and most of those were abandoned after violence broke out in the district. Miscreants, who are yet to be identified, took advantage of security lapses in the area to commit the arson," an official said.
The armed men also fired several rounds of shells and gunshots, targetting the village, he said.
Security forces were rushed to the area following the incident, he added.
Representatives of the Meitei and Hmar communities reached an agreement in a meeting held at a CRPF facility in adjoining Assam's Cachar on Thursday.
The meeting was moderated by Jiribam district administration, Assam Rifles and CRPF personnel. Representatives of the Thadou, Paite and Mizo communities of the district were also present in the meeting.
"The meeting resolved that both sides will make full efforts to bring normalcy and prevent incidents of arson and firing. Both sides shall give full cooperation to all the security forces operating in the Jiribam district. Both sides agreed to facilitate controlled and coordinated movement," a joint statement issued and signed by representatives of all the participating communities said.
The next meeting will be held on August 15.
More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.
Ethnically-diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by ethnic clashes in Imphal Valley and adjoining hills, erupted in violence after a mutilated body of a farmer was found in the fields in June this year. Thousands had to leave their homes and relocate to relief camps due to incidents of arson by both sides. A CRPF jawan was also killed in an ambush by militants in mid-July.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
