The outlawed Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) has claimed responsibility for the attack on a senior journalist in Manipur's capital Imphal on January 9. The claim came Sunday evening within the 48-hour deadline set by journalists failing which they said any militant group failing to clarify its role in the attack would be summarily blacked out of the press.
The All-Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and the Editor's Forum of Manipur (EFM) had on Friday last asked all militant organisations in the state to issue a clarification within 48 hours. The two journalists' groups had said if a rebel outfit failed to issue a clarification, its press handouts would not be published.
The move came after unidentified gunmen shot at and critically injured a senior journalist in Imphal Thursday last. The incident took place at the Uripok Bachaspati Leikai area shortly after 8 am when three armed men came on a two-wheeler and pumped in three bullets on Ratan Luwangcha, bureau chief of Manipuri daily Poknapham when he was browsing through the morning papers outside his residence.
Luwangcha, 40, suffered two bullet injuries. One bullet passed through his abdomen while the other passed through the left thigh. He was operated upon immediately. The bullet that hit his abdomen near his navel and exited after piercing the hip plate, ruptured his small intestine in six places and his colon at one.
On Friday, AMWJU/EFM began a protest sit-in demonstration in the Keishampat area. AMWJU/ EFM also announced that all newspapers in the state would suspend publication from Saturday in protest against the attack. All newspapers carried blank editorials on Friday. Incidentally, Luwangha is himself the general secretary of AMWJU.
AMWJU/EFM met at the Manipur Press Club Sunday evening after the KCP publicity secretary, Pibarel Mangang, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. They later said that newspapers in the state would resume publication immediately. However, the entire statement of the insurgent organisation as well as Luwangcha's version would be carried in the newspapers only after the condition of the journalist improved. AMWJU/EFM said that since the KCP statement was one-sided, it would be published alongside Luwangcha's only after he was in a position to do so. Luwangcha is undergoing treatment at Shija Hospitals and Research Centre, Langol.
According to the Imphal Free Press, the meeting also put on record its strong condemnation of the failure of the concerned group to respect the earlier resolution of the AMWJU and EFM asking all organisations or individuals who may have issues with particular mediapersons or particular media organisations to first take up the matter with the organisation the particular journalist belongs to, or with the AMWJU/EFM. The manner in which the matter was not brought before the notice of the AMWJU/ EFM was unfortunate, the two organisations said.
Earlier, the Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), United National Liberation Front (UNLF), Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF) promptly denided involvement in the attack. Unconfirmed reports said both the the Isak-Muivah and Khaplang factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) too denied having a hand in the incident.
Newspapers in the state had suspended publication for a few days in late October last year in protest against frequent meddling by militants in the functioning of media organisations. The newspapers did resume publication two days later, but also resolved not to yield to threats of militant organsations.
AMWJU, EFM, and representatives of various students' organisations, women's organisations, and nongovernmental organisations had met in Imphal and passed three resolutions at the end of the deliberations. The meeting had resolved that no group or individual should be allowed to coerce newspapers to publish any statement of theirs. The meeting resolved that journalists would try to correctly inform the people about incidents. Lastly, the meeting resolved to jointly fight all threats issued against newspapers.
