Imphal: Police on Friday recovered a hand grenade and a bomb in Manipur’s Imphal west district where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address an election rally on Saturday. The recovery comes even as an apex body of six rebel groups in Manipur has given a call for a “complete shutdown” in the state on Saturday to protest against Modi’s visit, saying it was aimed at “hoodwinking the people of Manipur”.
The Prime Minister will address a rally at Langjing Achouba ground in Imphal west district ahead of the assembly polls. A Chinese-made hand grenade was found near the gate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Soibam Subhachandra’s residence at Ningombam Leikai, 9 km from the Achouba ground, while another bomb was found in front of another BJP worker O. Sunil’s residence in Thoubal district, 40 km from the rally venue.
The shutdown called by the Coordination Committee (Corcom) will begin at 6am and continue till the Prime Minister leaves the state, a Corcom press release said. “Narendra Modi’s visit to Imphal on 25 February is another trip aimed at hoodwinking the people of Manipur,” the release said.
Essential services like medical, media, water supply, electricity and fire services would be outside the purview of the shutdown, the statement said. Police have intensified frisking all over the state capital to ensure that there was no loophole in the security arrangements for the Prime Minister’s visit.
State police commandos carried out search operations and house-to-house verification at Taobungkhok Awang Leikai. Polling for the 60-seat Manipur assembly will take place in two phases on 4 and 8 March.
