Form joint parliamentary team to probe Manipur violence, Mizoram MP urges PM Modi

AIZAWL: The lone Rajya Sabha member from Mizoram, K Vanlalvena, on Tuesday requests Prime Minister Narendra Modi to constitute a joint parliamentary team, which included 'Christian MPs', to carry out an independent probe into the recent violence in Manipur.
In a letter to Modi, Vanlalvena requested that the team should be sent to the affected areas of violence so that it can investigate the entire sequence of events 'so that the truth may be unearthed and justice is delivered'.He told the Prime Minister that on the first day of the riot, May 3, a mob went on the rampage in Imphal area where houses, shops and vehicles belonging to non-Meitei communities were set on fire. "In addition to these, it needs to be pointed out that not less than 42 churches were set on fire, of which six belonged to the local Meitei Christian community," the MP said.
"Based on this fact, it is evident that the seemingly random act of violence perpetrated on that fateful day was not a spontaneous burst of outrage by one community against another. Rather, it clearly shows a premeditated move on the part of the perpetrators to specifically target the Christian community, including the local Meitei Christian community of Imphal, shaking one of the main foundations of our Constitution - 'secularism'," he said.
The Rajya Sabha member said on the night of May 5, one man and three women, all unarmed, were gunned down by the Assam Rifles personnel in Churachandpur town. "These men and women were part of a group of unarmed demonstrators who were demanding that the tribal civilians also be rescued," he said.