Imphal, Jul 16: In an obvious attempt to extract their pound of flesh for the gunning down of Subedar Tuk Bahadur Pun by MPA cadres near Moreh Gate number 2 on July 13, troops of 24 Assam Rifles went on the rampage today, and beat up a number of civilians near Moreh Gate number 2 besides forcing the shops and other commercial establishments to shut down.

Reports received from Moreh said that the troops scattered the goods being sold by women folk and lined up all the men on the sides of the street and made them take off their shirts while the troops went about beating up all and sundry.

The PRO of PIB (Defence Wing) however refuted the report that the AR men went berserk and added that the bandh has been called with unterior motive.

The PRO explained that trouble has been cooked up as the troops have rounded up five suspects in connection with the July 13 incident and added that valuable information has been received from interrogating the five suspects.

No one was beaten up today, he asserted, quoting Assam Rifles authorities.

A 50 year old Nepali from Myanmar was among the victims to face the wrath of the AR men.

Talking to the media, he said that though Myanmar is under the military junta such excesses of the security personnel are not witnessed there.

He said that if the AR troops did not want any Myanmarese to cross into India they could have said so instead of beating up the innocent people.

To protest the conduct of the AR personnel, different women organisations of Moreh have formed the All Moreh Meira Paibi Lup and has clamped an indefinite Moreh bandh adopting four resolutions.

The resolutions include continuing with the bandh until an authorised and competent person personally comes to the border town to settle the issue, to oppose the habit of the AR men in issuing fake arrest memo, to protest the forced closure of shops, harassments meted out to women traders and ransacking their goods and to jointly launch an agitation against the excesses of the personnel.

The resolutions were adopted during a public meeting held in front of Moreh police station.

The AR rampage started from 9.30 am today.

A 26 year old man, Md Siraj sustained head and hand injuries in the beating, a Tamil, Sarbana (26) who sustained injuries with a suspected ear drum perforation has been rushed to Imphal while a 35 year old man identified as Ch Kumar sustained grievous injuries.

A Bihari housewife, Reeta heavily criticised the AR men and questioned what their men were doing when the Subedar was attacked.

If the AR men on duty at the AR post could not see the attackers, then how they expect the civilians to see them, she countered.

Many other women leaders also spoke out heavily against the conduct of the AR men.

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