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When the ban on mobile internet services in Manipur was lifted on 23 September, almost five months since a shutdown after sectarian violence erupted in the state on 3 May, no one imagined that it would unleash a wave of shock and trauma any time soon.
Less than two days after the ban was lifted, a set of photos started the rounds of social media: the before and after photos of two young minors who the state government confirmed, had been killed.
Luwangbi Linthoingambi Hijam (17) and Phijam Hemanjit Singh (20) were two students who were reported missing in July this year and the last that they had been seen alive was, as reported by the police, on a road leading towards Churachandpur, an area dominated by a community that has been in conflict to the one that the young people belonged to.
Students at Tamphasana Girls’ Higher Secondary School where Linthoingambi had studied until last year, held a tearful school assembly with a condolence observation. “Teachers and students…all of us were crying. There was so much grief but also a helpless anger. What did they do wrong that they had to be killed?” asked a student.
The collective despair made students of the school (situated at a stone’s throw from the Governor’s residence) head out from their classes and form a human chain while a batch of over 30 students along with a few teachers had gone by foot to attend an educational event at the Government museum at a distance of about 2 kilometres.
The students in the human chain were then fired upon, leading students from two nearby schools –Johnstone Higher Secondary School and Churachand Higher Secondary School to rush towards the all-girls school in an act of solidarity. Security personnel used brute force on students right in front of a school. About 40 students, mostly girls were injured from the use of batons and tear gas.
By evening, an official notification from the Director of Education (Schools) announced that "all State Government/State Government Aided/Private Unaided Schools would be closed down on September 27 and September 29."
This incensed the students further.
“On Tuesday, it was just students of three schools for the most part. But the manner in which the security forces brutalized us, all of us reached out to one another in our networks of friends. All of us felt the need to come together and that is how a rally was organized on Wednesday,” says Naoba (name changed, 17 years old).
A class 11 student, Naoba continued, “We only wanted the Chief Minister to assure us that there would be justice for Linthoingambi and Hemanjit. We wanted him to be aware of our concerns and that there would be action against the security forces who had beaten up students mercilessly. Naoba, who hails from Kakching district and 30 others came by bus to the rally venue.
Each one had rushed in their school clothes without food as the rally was decided right in the morning with the meeting time being fixed at 8.30 am. They had their ID cards prominently displayed. But the school dress nor their student ID cards would save anyone from the terror that security forces (State police, RAF, army) unleashed.
Despite official sources saying that ‘minimum force was used’ on the students yesterday, there are numerous videos and photos in the public domain that show all too clearly that there were baton charges, smoke bombs and tear gas being fired right into the assembly of students. There is photo evidence of tear gas canisters used on the students, bearing an expiration mark for the year 2021.
Medical records show the extent of grievous injuries from the extensive use of pellet bullets fired possibly from close range while Government hospitals ran out of space at the Emergency ward with the number of people who had to be provided oxygen support and other emergency medical care.
The Legality of Tear Gas in Civil Spaces
Teargas is part of a category of non-lethal weapons (NLWs) meant to incapacitate people without causing death or permanent injury, with minimal damage to the surrounding environment. They were used majorly in the First and Second World Wars as in a few other instances in different parts of the world.
Several nations have signed international agreements pertaining to the prohibition of chemical weapons, notably the Washington Treaty of 1922 and the Geneva Protocol of 1925 which classifies teargas as distinct and unique, but not categorically banned. In India, tear gas is ‘fired with an angle of about 45 degrees to avoid a direct hit. It should not be fired into the crowd’. This has, of course, been violated across the country.
A former member of the Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights speaking on the ground of anonymity said, "The appeal sent out by the Chairperson of the Commission is a spineless act. Children are collateral damage in conflict and it is public knowledge when it comes to how security personnel are prone to overstep their limits. There should have been directives sent out to the law enforcing agencies, including paramilitary forces as early as May and the Commission should really be taking suo moto cases now against security personnel for violating laws laid out as per the Juvenile Justice Act. Even when a minor has committed a crime, he/she cannot be apprehended by police in uniform. Minors cannot be lathicharged and they have to be warned to disperse."
Manipur is no stranger to protests or the excessive force that is used to quell them. What was it then that gave protesting students the courage to head out for a rally despite knowing that there would be violence? This was a question that had to be asked, “Are we not even allowed to express the sadness and despair that we feel as young people of Manipur? Why did they have to fire indiscriminately against unarmed students?” said a student from Tamphasana Girls’ Higher Secondary School.
Her voice breaking over the phone and then punctuated with short silences, the 17-year-old continued, “We never had any real hope that they (Linthoingambi Hijam and Hemanjit) would be found safe and sound after all this time but the viral photos showing them just a few moments before they were killed and their slumped bodies…how do you expect us to be unaffected?”
Tangja Yambem, a clinical psychologist cautions against the implications of long-term militarization and violence. “Young people are affected mentally, emotionally, and physically by what is happening around them. Long-term violence can make them question humanity, not to mention, carrying the burden of unresolved trauma. The nature of violence by security personnel on students is totally unacceptable and can further cause distrust in governance mechanisms,” she said.
According to a first-year student of Imphal College who was at the protest yesterday, “When we saw the photos of the two students who had been killed, we felt helpless seeing the look on their faces in their final moments. They were unarmed, they meant no harm to anyone! They were let down and we are being let down by everyone.”
Another student pointed out how total strangers along the rally route opened up their homes to the students who had scattered once the crackdown by security forces started. “We were given clothes to change so that we could no longer be identified as students. We got to reach our homes safely only because of them,” he said.
(Chitra Ahanthem is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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