GUWAHATI
The police in ethnic violence-hit Manipur’s Bishnupur district on August 28 launched a combing operation after three minor girls reported the abduction of 17 school-bound children by masked gunmen.
Hundreds of people and members of other security agencies in Bishnupur and adjoining districts joined the search too — only to find out later in the day that the girls, in their early teens, had cooked up the story to escape punishment for bunking classes in school.
Bishnupur, a Meitei-dominated district in Imphal Valley, has been one of the worst affected in the ongoing violence that broke out on May 3. It adjoins the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district, also severely hit by the Kuki-Meitei conflict.
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The trio claimed they were among 20 girls headed to their school in the Kabowakching area when two masked men kidnapped them after offering to take them on a picnic. The spot they referred to is near Nambol, about 16 km from the State’s capital Imphal.
The girls said they sensed trouble and jumped off the moving vehicle.
Bishnupur’s Superintendent of Police K. Meghachandra said the kidnapping story turned out to be fabricated but had the potential to heighten tension in frayed Manipur.
The girls claimed they were abducted by two persons wearing masks at around 8.55 a.m.
“They said that while traveling in the vehicle, they became suspicious of the kidnappers’ motive and jumped out of the vehicle in the Kamong Maishnam area,” Mr. Meghachandra said.
The girls further said that the other 17 children in the van were wearing black clothes, and that the three changed their school uniform at the house of a relative of one of the “abducted” children.
“A proper verification was done as there was inconsistencies in the statements by the girls, and it was established that they cooked up the story to skip school,” Mr. Meghachandra said.
The three were later handed over to members of their families.
Reports about the abduction, particularly with Manipur having witnessed several cases over more than 100 days, had spread like wildfire during the day, sending the local authorities into a tizzy. Security forces were placed on alert, apprehending protests by the people.
