IMPHAL: A grenade hurled from a motorbike towards Manipur minister Yumnam Khemchand’s house in Imphal West late Saturday exploded after hitting an electricity pole near the main gate, injuring a young woman from the BJP politician’s extended family and a CRPF sentry.
Dinesh Chandra Das (57) of the CRPF’s F30 Battalion suffered a splinter wound to his right hand, while Purnilesha Yumnam (25), the minister’s relative, injured her left foot in the attack around 10pm.Police quoted witnesses as saying that two unidentified motorbike riders wearing full-mask helmets hurled the explosive and sped away. CM N Biren Singh, who was among the first to visit Singjamei Yumnam Leikai after being informed of the 10pm blast, termed it a “cowardly, uncivilised act” whose motive would be known after the duo’s arrest.
Teams from Imphal and Singjamei police stations reached the neighbourhood within minutes of the attack. IGP (Imphal Range) Temthing Ngasangva arrived soon after.Khemchand, the rural development and panchayati raj minister, said he was “surprised” at being targeted. “I have no enemies,” he told the media.
Residents of the locality held a sit-in on Sunday in protest against the attack. Yambem Shantibala, one of the protesters, said the damage could have been worse had the blast occurred earlier as Singjamei Yumnam Leikai is a densely populated residential neighbourhood.
CM BirenSingh had said just a day earlier that law and order in Manipur, where an ethnic strife erupted in early May, had improved enough for his government to shift its focus back to development.
Dinesh Chandra Das (57) of the CRPF’s F30 Battalion suffered a splinter wound to his right hand, while Purnilesha Yumnam (25), the minister’s relative, injured her left foot in the attack around 10pm.Police quoted witnesses as saying that two unidentified motorbike riders wearing full-mask helmets hurled the explosive and sped away. CM N Biren Singh, who was among the first to visit Singjamei Yumnam Leikai after being informed of the 10pm blast, termed it a “cowardly, uncivilised act” whose motive would be known after the duo’s arrest.
Teams from Imphal and Singjamei police stations reached the neighbourhood within minutes of the attack. IGP (Imphal Range) Temthing Ngasangva arrived soon after.Khemchand, the rural development and panchayati raj minister, said he was “surprised” at being targeted. “I have no enemies,” he told the media.
Residents of the locality held a sit-in on Sunday in protest against the attack. Yambem Shantibala, one of the protesters, said the damage could have been worse had the blast occurred earlier as Singjamei Yumnam Leikai is a densely populated residential neighbourhood.
CM BirenSingh had said just a day earlier that law and order in Manipur, where an ethnic strife erupted in early May, had improved enough for his government to shift its focus back to development.
