Manipur violence: Mob torches BJP mandal office amid protest over two students' killing

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mandal office in Manipur was torched by an angry mob on Wednesday. The office located in Thoubal district was set on fire by student protestors, who vented their fury over the killings of two missing students in the state.

The mob additionally vandalised the office gate, smashed windows, and inflicted damage upon the windshield of a vehicle parked within the premises of the party office. The protestors also resorted to burning tyres and blocking the traffic movement on the Indo-Myanmar highway using wooden logs and unused electric poles.

This is not the first instance when a BJP office was attacked in the strife-torn northeastern state as earlier in June, three BJP offices were vandalised by miscreants amid escalating ethnic tensions. 

Protest over killing of two students 

Harrowing pictures of two Manipur students, who were reported missing since July 6, have surfaced on social media, appearing to be before and after they were allegedly murdered by unidentified miscreants in the violence-hit northeastern state. The victims were identified as 17-year-old Hijam Linthoingambi and 20-year-old Phijam Hemjit.

The first picture shows the two students sitting on a grassy compound with worried countenances, while two armed miscreants are visible behind them. The second picture shows the murdered bodies of the two students. The whereabouts of the students are not known yet and their mobile phones are found to be switched off, according to police sources. 

In protest of the killing, hundreds of students marched towards the residence of Manipur CM N Biren Singh on Wednesday as massive protests against the kidnapping and killing of two students continued in Imphal on the second consecutive day.