Freedom fighter's 80-yr-old wife burnt alive amid attack

Imphal: In another horrifying case of ongoing ethnic violence reported from Manipur after the parading of two naked women in Kangpokpi district on May 4, the octogenarian widow of a freedom fighter was locked inside her house and it set on fire by an armed group in Manipur’s Kakching district.

Belonging to Meitei community, S. Ibetombi Maibi, the wife of the freedom fighter S. Churachand Singh, who died few years back at 80, was locked inside her house before the armed assailants set on fire her home at Serou village on May 28, according to a FIR filed recently with Serou police station.

Churachand Singh, who was a member of the Indian National Army headed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, was honoured by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and awarded Netaji Award by All India Forward Bloc in April 1997. Burnt bones of Ibetombi Maibi, half-burnt photographs, medals, mementos of Churachand Singh, many valuables, domestic materials, burnt houses and bullet holes on the walls are now displaying the undreamed off horror.

The Congress claimed that there would be no movement towards peace in Manipur as long as N Biren Singh remains the chief minister as it urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act now and not "deflect, distort and defame to cover up" the "collapse of the so-called double engine governance" in the northeastern state. The opposition party's attack came over a media report that claimed that an 18-year-old woman, who was abducted, assaulted and gang-raped in Manipur's Imphal East district on May 15, approached the police on July 21, after which a zero First Information Report (FIR) was registered. As Parliament's Monsoon session remained deadlocked over ethnic violence in Manipur, Union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday appealed to the opposition parties "with folded hands" to join the debate on the issue.