The Congress Party has said that around five gunshots were fired during an election campaign for its candidate for Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, Prof Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, at Phairenbam Mandop in Leikai, Moirang on Friday.

The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) submitted a complaint to the Chief Electoral Office on this matter where it informed that the incident occurred around 3:30 pm when over 400 people had gathered at the site for an election related Public Interaction Programme organised by P. Sharatchandra Singh (Retd. IAS and Ex-MLA) for the visit of Congress Party Candidate for 1-Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency.

MPCC further informed that “Suddenly 5/6 gunshots were fired upon the gathering crowd by unknown persons and the crowd started running away to save their lives.” It also claimed that the unidentified gunmen threatened the organisers and the crowd, ordering them to disperse immediately. “The crowd had to disperse and the meeting was completely disrupted,” the Party said.

Manipur Congress stated that several Party leaders were on their way to the site including Girish Chodankar (AICC In-charge Manipur), K. Meghachandra, MLA (President, MPCC), O. Ibobi Singh, MLA & Ex-Chief Minister (CLP Leader, Manipur), the candidate and others.

On Saturday, a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur for taking up necessary legal action against the miscreants who fired gunshots at Moirang where election-related public interactions were supposed to be organised.  Manipur Congress also urged the CEO to initiate immediate “security measures by deploying central armed police personnel in all the valley areas of Manipur as almost all the valley areas would be hyper sensitive zones for this coming election as there are many reports from different sources for committing/ organizing violence during the poll or in advanced.”