Kumbi protest still on, BTS towers torched
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 15 2011:
Along with taking out a protest rally in and around Kumbi area today, infuriated local residents attacked and set on fire two BTS towers of Aircel alleging that the mobile service provider company has been maintaining a deafening silence over the abduction of its security supervisor Moirangthem Boboy.
In response to the call of the JAC formed to protest the abduction, a large number of local residents, mostly womenfolk, took out a protest rally in and around Kumbi.
At the end of the rally, the protestors damaged two BTS towers besides setting them on fire.
At first, the protestors targeted the BTS tower located at Kumbi Lai Sandhong Mamang Leikai.
As hitting the tower with stones and staff could not satisfy their cry for justice, some of the protestors poured petrol and set the tower on fire.
The police rushed to the spot to disperse the protestors and put off the fire.
In the ensuing melee, one police personnel who was trying to put off the fire, sustained injuries when the fire caught his uniform.
The injury, however, he was not seriously injured.
After this incident, another group of protestors also set on fire another BTS tower located along the road leading to Ithai Barrage from Kumbi.
Bishnupur district police commandos had to fire tear gas canisters to disperse the protestors and managed to put off the fire before it could cause any major damage.
One woman protestor reportedly sustained injuries in the ensuing melee.
Earlier, the protest rally, which started from Kumbi Bazar, passed through different localities of Kumbi and Ithai-Ungathel.
The protestors decried the alleged silence of Aircel company over the abduction of Moirangthem Boboy.
A resident of Kumbi Bazar, Moirangthem Boboy, who is the Thoubal district supervisor of the New Delhi based BCL Security Private Limited, a private security agency which provides security to some mobile phone service providers including Aircel, had been abducted by a faction of KCP (MC) on February 11 .
The whereabouts of Boboy has not been known after
the abduction.
He has been allegedly abducted over a demand of Rs 5 crores from Aircel and BCL combine.