Apunba Lup, a conglomerate of several civil society organizations which had been spearheading the movement against the imposition of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, terming the incident an act of ‘state terrorism’ called a 48 hour state-wide general strike from the midnight of August 2 paralysing normal life in Manipur once again.

A large number of people; mostly women and youth came out from the respective homes and took to the streets of Imphal to shout slogans like, ‘Punish the guilty commando personnel’, ‘Resign CM Ibobi’, etc, at various locations. The police had a hard time dispersing the mob and started using tear gas shells to which the mob retaliated by pelting stones wherein more than 35 protestors were injured, some seriously.

Protestors throwing stones at police personal during the 48-hours strike To pacify the situation, the state authority imposed an indefinite curfew in greater Imphal area from 10 pm of August 4 till further orders which further helped in paralyzing normal life in the state. Since the 13th of August, night curfew is still on till the filing of this report.

The Manipur Government announced a judicial probe into the alleged ‘fake encounter’ on August 5th after widespread public protest. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh in a hurriedly called press conference announced the government’s move to suspend six Manipur Police Commando personnel including one Sub-Inspector said to be involved in the ‘encounter’.

However the Chief Minister’s promise couldn’t convince the striking Apunba Lup and other Joint Actions Committee (JAC)s. The JAC against brutal killing of Sanjit’s convenor Th Anita taking part in a poster campaign wanted to know the make of the bullets which killed both the pregnant lady and the former militant saying, “We don’t want any form of inquiry at all, instead punish the involved personnel as they have already been exposed”.

The JAC against the brutal killing of C Sanjit in the meantime launched a widespread ‘poster campaign’ against the incident and urged the state authority to sentence those involved to life imprisonment or face an impending ‘intense form’ of agitation.

A number of political parties, rejecting state government’s initial move of instituting a magisterial inquiry, demanded a judicial inquiry.

Former CM and State NCP president Radhabinod Koijam, Dr Nimaichand Luwang, president of Manipur Peoples Party, and BJP National executive member M Bhorot in their separate meetings with media persons have demanded a judicial probe.

A joint meeting of the leaders of five political parties namely NCP, BJP, CPI (M), MPP and Manipur State Congress Party even took a decision to demand the resignation of State Chief Minister on moral grounds so as to ensure free and fair conduct of the Judicial Inquiry into the incident as announced by the Government.

This is not the first time that Manipur is erupting in protestagainst such incidents of excess on the part of the security personal aim to control violators of the imposed curfew security forces in the name of counter - insurgency operations under the pretext of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA].

The unrest across the state is reminiscent of what followed the custodial death of alleged militant Thangjam Manorama (32) in July 2004. As in Manorama’s case, Sanjit’s killing has put the focus back on the AFSPA.

A series of demonstrations including the nude protest by a dozen women in front of the historic Kangla Fort in Imphal following Manorama’s death made the Manipur government withdraw the AFSPA from the Imphal Municipal Area comprising seven assembly constituencies.

However protest still continues in Manipur as many womenfolk and volunteers of local bodies tried to storm many police stations in Imphal’s west and east districts as part of an attempt to carry out mass court arrest besides staging sit in demonstrations at various locations. However police prevented them from doing so by firing tear gas shells and mock bombs amidst the night curfew from 5pm to 5 am.

In English news channel of the country had even reported that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had even summoned the Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh to explain why his police acted with such impunity after the Chief Minister’s conference in New Delhi on August 17.

The working committee of the Apunba Lup which is spearheading the movement even called a 36 hour statewide general strike from 5 pm of 18 August till 5 pm of the following day demanding the resignation of Chief Minister O. Ibobi from Chief Ministership, life imprisonment of the police commandos involved in the July 23 BT road killing, initiation of action against police brass who tried to hide the real culprit of the incident and also the release of the arrested members of the Apunba Lup detained under National Security Act unconditionally.