Manipur: 24 MLAs Write To Amit Shah, Seek Swift CBI Action To Nab Culprits Behind Killing Of Students

Manipur Students' Killing: Protests continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday even as a special CBI team arrived in Imphal to expedite the investigation in the case.

School students stage a protest rally against the killing of two youths

Source : PTI

Amid intensifying protests in Manipur over the killing of two young students, 24 MLAs of BJP and National People's Party wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking "urgent" necessary action by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the culprits. Manipur has been rocked by massive protests over the killing of two youths who were missing since July 6, prompting the government to suspend internet services for five days till October 1. Photos of the bodies of the two missing youths went viral on social media earlier this week.
 
"We, the undersigned Members of the Legislative Assembly of Manipur would like to bring to your kind notice that photographs of two 'murdered' students who have been missing since July, 2023, have surfaced on social media which had led to widespread unrest and violence in the state. Further, the state government has handed over the case to the CBI for further investigation in July, 2023," the legislators stated in the letter on Tuesday.

In their letter to Amit Shah, the MLAs cited the example of swift action initiated by CBI in the viral video case, where two women were stripped, molested and paraded naked by a mob in May. 

The letter written by the 24 MLAs to Home Minister Amit Shah

"It is an earnest request of the undersigned MLAs that the CBI may be directed to take up urgent expeditious action so that the guilty culprits are brought to book and justice is served at the earliest, as was similarly done earlier in the viral video case that occurred on May 4, 2023," the letter read.

The 24 legislators inlcude Thokchom Satyabrata Singh (BJP), Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh (BJP), Sheikh Noorul Hassan (National People’s Party) and Thokchom Radheshyam Singh (BJP) among others. 

Manipur: Protests Continue Over Killing Of Two Students

The development comes after photographs of the two students, who had gone missing on July 6, emerged online after the restoration of internet services in the state on Saturday. In one of the photographs, the students were seen sitting on the ground with two armed men standing behind them while in the other photograph, the duo is seen lying down, possibly dead.

Massive protests erupted on Tuesday over the "kidnapping" and subsequent killing of the students. At least 50 students were injured in police action during the protests. The Manipur government later suspended mobile internet services for five days and declared closure of schools till Friday due to the law and order situation.

Protests against the killing of the students continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. A special CBI team arrived in state capital Imphal to expedite the investigation in the case.