Manipur post-poll violence: one killed in blast, house attacked

Correspondent
A bomb blast at a grocery shop rented by a candidate in the recently concluded two-phase elections killed a salesman while gun shots were fired at a house of another candidate in another post-poll violence incidents reported in Manipur in the last 24 hours.
A police source said that the salesman of a grocery shop identified as Deepak Shah (28) from Bihar was killed when a bomb exploded inside the shop at Zion Street at Churachandpur district headquarters around 7.30 pm on Saturday. The police suspected the owner of the building, James Khuma Hazel contested as independent candidate from Churachandpur AC was the actual target of the blast.
They said that an unidentified person handed over the bomb wrapped in a gift box to be handed over to the owner of the building.
However, soon after the unidentified person left the shop, the salesman noticed smoke coming out of the box. Upon pouring water on it to douse the smoke, the bomb went off with the shrapnel hitting Sahu.
He was immediately rushed to the district hospital in Churachandpur. However, due to the critical nature of injuries, he was further referred to a hospital in Imphal and succumbed on the way, reports said.
Police have registered a case to investigate the incident. In another post poll violence incident, miscreants opened fire several rounds gun fire at the house of Lourembam Sanjoy Singh at Yambem village under Andro police of Imphal East district who contested in the recently concluded polls from Andro AC on an NPP ticket.
No casualty was reported in the firing that took place around 10.30 pm but the roof of a front part of the candidate’s house was damaged by bullets.
Police who rushed to the house soon after the firing recovered several empty cases during spot inquiry, reports said.
The gunmen further opened fire several rounds on the houses of two active workers of the candidate in the neighbouring villages.
Saturday night’s attack was not the first time the NPP candidate was targeted by the miscreants. He has been repeatedly targeted by the unidentified gunmen since he decided to contest the elections.
His father was also shot at by armed miscreants at his house a few days before the polls and is currently being treated at a hospital in Imphal. The voting in the AC took place on February 28 and Sanjoy was defeated by BJP candidate Th Shyamkumar by a small margin.
The NPP candidate who has been under constant attack drew the attention of the pertinent authorities to take up necessary measures to check repetition of such incidents in the larger interest of the peace and security of the people of the Andro AC.
He said that people of the AC, particularly his workers and supporters, were not secure as no stringent measure to book the armed miscreants taken up so far.
The poll related violence incidents reported in the last 24 hours is at a time tensions were running high in the post-poll violent hit Jiribam district where the district administration clamped indefinite curfew besides suspension of mobile data service for five days with effect from Saturday.