Moreh tension subsides after joint meet
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 29 2010: Okram Ibobi Singh's trouble shooter Bijoy Koijam today defused highly charged atmosphere at Manipur's border township of Moreh, fanned by missing of a Kuki businessman, by bringing community leaders of Moreh together.

Tension was mounting between different communities ever since Nengsuanmang Zou, a Kuki trader went missing since November 19 last year.

Moreh residents said Zou (40) of Moreh Ward No.1 never returned home after he left Moreh on that day for Tamu.

Residents of Moreh now presume that the trader is dead and Kuki villagers suspected hands of members of some other community in the missing of the trader.

SP Chandel Radhashyam Singh said police had even contacted their Tamu counterparts on several occasions to trace out the missing person, but whereabouts of the missing man could not be known till today.

A meeting underway at the Moreh Trade Centre

Moreh has a record of communal flare up whenever something unwanted happened on any one of the communities living in this township.

Moreh and Tamu are trade hubs for the international border trade.

Though no unwanted development came after the missing of the trader, intelligence reports suggested tension was simmering and a spark could trigger a major flare up over the case of the missing trader.

To defuse the tension the Chief Minister today rushed Koijam, who is the Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board to Moreh to defuse the tension between the communities.

Ibobi sent Koijam after a delegation of the all communities apprised him of the prevailing situation on January 23 .

On reaching Moreh, Koijam convened a joint meeting of leaders of various communities at the Trade Centre.

Relatives of the missing person also attended the meeting.

A joint memorandum submitted by five organisations of Moreh to the Chief Minister through Koijam today demanded financial assistance to family of the missing person and a government job to the wife of the missing trader.

Leaders of the communities were pacified after Koijam assured them that the Government would extend financial assistance of Rs one lakh to the widow and her three children and a Government job for the widow Chinglamneng Zou.

The widow is likely to be appointed as grade four in the newly inaugurated public health centre, Moreh.

Koijam also appealed to all communities to maintain communal harmony and peace in view of the existing border trade which was benefiting all communities not only in Moreh, but also in Manipur.

He cautioned that if trouble continue to dog Moreh the border trade could be shifted to some other state.

The widow, however, believed that her husband was still alive.

"He did not do anything wrong.

He was innocent and I don't believe any innocent person like my husband would be killed by anyone.

I don't want anything.

I want return of my husband," she cried at the gathering.

The Deputy Commissioner of Chandel H Dileep Singh and Superintendent of Police Chandel Radhashyam Singh were also present during the meeting.

Later Bijoy Koijam visited the house of the deceased to console the wife and her three children.

Koijam handed over a sum of Rs one lakh to the widow as financial assistance from the Govt.The family is planning to perform the last rites on February 2 .