Imphal: Tension continues to run high even though the six abducted villagers of Jessami were released late last night by the villagers of Melori.
Jessami is in Manipur’s Ukhrul district while Melori is located in Nagaland’s Phek district.
“Villagers of Jessami in Manipur and Melori in Nagaland should remain calm and try to live in peace and harmony with each other as violence will not bring any good to both sides”, said Preshow Shimray, the local MLA of Chingai assembly constituency
At the same time, the MLA also stated that the 30/40 VDF personnel engaged for the protection of Jessami are inadequate to safeguard the border village which has been facing frequent incursion from the Nagaland side.
He expressed his aspiration for the deployment of IRB personnel and a police outpost under an SDPO by the government of Manipur for Jessami keeping in mind the sensitive atmosphere of the village, while speaking to media persons at Shija Hospital, Imphal where one of the six injured villagers was brought for medical aid. The government of Manipur had been warned two years back about the possibility of occurrence of such incidents if proper appropriate steps were not taken up for the protection of the border village, stated N. Rajendro, president of Information Centre for Hill Areas, Manipur (ICHAM) who was also present at the hospital.
He also demanded that the government of Manipur open an IRB post in Jessami and reminded that the matter should be taken very seriously before it escalate into something regrettable.
It may be mentioned that on the Nagaland-Manipur border where around 400 villagers from Melori village in Nagaland armed with guns, knives and other weapons had beaten some villagers from Jessami in Ukhrul district, Manipur and had reportedly taken them away across to Melori at around 10:30 on Wednesday.
The unpleasant episode was reported to have occurred after villagers of Melori noticed villagers of Jessami ploughing a piece of land which the villagers of Melori had already started to plough. The disputed piece of land is reported to be under the authority of Jessami village.
Six villagers were reported to have been beaten up severely by a large number of villagers from Melori before they were taken to the Nagaland side of the border.
A case has been registered at Jessami police station and the chief secretary of Manipur has also been informed about the matter by the local MLA. It may also be recalled that there has been strain in the relation in the past also between the villagers of Jessami in Manipur and Melori in Nagaland involving disputes in claiming land for cultivation and other purposes. Nagaland government had even constructed a guest house and a fishing rest house in Jessami, which had led to a great furor in Manipur leading to the deployment of IRB personnel in Jessami. Tension had started to build up after the withdrawal of the IRB personnel which had culminated to the present fracas. (NNN)