NEW DELHI, 7 Apr: Reacting strongly to the killing of two children in a bomb blast in Manipur’s Bishnupur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take concrete and immediate steps in the northeastern state before the situation gets out of control.
“Prime Minister ji, Manipur is not just a state; it is a responsibility. Giving a mere statement for the sake of it is not enough; a mere showy visit is not enough.”
“You’ll have to take concrete and immediate steps before the situation spirals completely out of control,” the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post in Hindi on X.
Two children were killed and their mother was injured in a bomb attack in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Tuesday, triggering protests by locals, police said. The incident occurred around 1 am when a bomb was hurled by suspected militants at a house in the Moirang Tronglaobi area, killing a five-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl, a senior officer said.
Noting that the news of the murder of two little children sleeping in the home of a BSF jawan in Manipur is heart-wrenching, Gandhi said even three years later, innocent children are still being burnt in the smouldering fire of violence and no sign of peace is visible anywhere near.
“The Modi government has become so desensitised and stone-hearted that it seems to have forgotten that Manipur’s children are also the nation’s children, our future. When will this government wake up? Until when will Manipur keep counting the bodies of its own?” the Congress leader asked.
Gandhi pointed out that he has repeatedly said that peace is the only way.
“Only by bringing all communities together, with sensitivity, can a permanent solution to this crisis be found,” he noted.
Chief Minister Y. Khemchand Singh described the attack as a “barbaric act” and assured the people that those responsible for the crime would be identified and dealt with firmly under the law.
Locals staged a protest on Tuesday morning and torched two oil tankers and a truck near a petrol pump in the area. They burnt tyres in front of the Moirang police station and destroyed a makeshift police outpost. (PTI)
