Senior journalist Yambem Laba was reportedly abducted by unidentified armed persons from his residence in Imphal at gunpoint early Tuesday morning hours after he had returned from a television talk show on the current political crisis in Manipur.
The gunmen held Laba, a special correspondent with The Statesman, for nearly seven hours and released him at 10.30 am, his family told Newslaundry.
Speaking to Newslaundry, Laba's elder brother, Yambem Angamba, said that the journalist was picked up by 15-20 gunmen at gunpoint around 3.30 am. “Laba had appeared on a talk show around 6.00 pm on Monday and hours later he was kidnapped by the gunmen from his house,” he said.
Angamba added that the family approached the Imphal police around 7:30 am on Tuesday morning and a few hours later the gunmen “handed over” Laba to the family at the police station. More details about Laba's release and the identity of the perpetrators are awaited.
Laba, a long-time critic of Manipur CM Biren Singh – who resigned from the top post on Sunday– has been the victim of several attacks in the recent past.
Just two days before Laba's abduction, militants had fired several rounds at his house and allegedly asked him to delete a Facebook post critical of armed groups in Manipur, Deccan Herald reported.
Laba was also shot at by unidentified assailants who fired at least ten rounds at his house in September last year. He was unhurt in the attack and subsequently filed a police complaint with the police. Speaking to Newslaundry, Laba had then termed the attack “political”. Before the attack, he had criticised Biren Singh for his handling of the Manipur conflict.
Former acting chairperson of the Manipur Human Rights Commission, Laba had also floated the Good Governance Party, a political party, in July 2024.
In October 2024, he was booked for criminal intimidation. A woman had alleged that a close associate of Laba had threatened her using a licensed pistol belonging to the journalist.
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