Amid escalating unrest in Manipur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday cancelled all his rallies in poll-bound Maharashtra and returned to Delhi to hold a meeting to review the volatile situation. Irate mobs set fire to the residences of three more Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  legislators, one of whom is a senior Minister, and also the home of a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley, even as security forces foiled the attempt of agitators to storm the ancestral residence of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, officials said.

Later in the evening, the Home Minister held a meeting with senior security and intelligence officials, and reviewed the Manipur situation. Meanwhile, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)  chief Anish Dayal Singh reached imphal on Sunday, to monitor and coordinate the security operations in the region.

The fresh incidents of violent protests took place on Saturday night even as an indefinite curfew was clamped after people, agitated by the killing of three women and children each by militants in Jiribam district, attacked the residences of three state Ministers and six MLAs earlier on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Manipur Government has requested the Centre to review and withdraw AFSPA from areas falling under the jurisdiction of six police stations in the State. The Centre has reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in Manipur’s six police station areas, including violence-hit Jiribam.

Union Ministry of Home Affairs had, on November 14, reimposed AFSPA in areas falling under Sekmai PS and Lamsang PS in Imphal West district, Lamlai in Imphal East, Moirang in Bishnupur, Leimakhong in Kangpokpi and Jiribam in Jiribam district.

Enraged people torched the houses of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam at Ningthoukhong, Hiyanglam’s BJP MLA Y Radheshyam at Langmeidong Bazar, Wangjing Tentha’s BJP MLA Paonam Brojen in Thoubal district and Khundrakpam’s Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, the officials said. The legislators and their family members were not at home when the angry mob stormed their residential compounds, vandalised properties and set the houses on fire, police said, adding the houses were partially burnt in the incidents.

Fire services rushed to the spots and doused the blaze before the flames engulfed the houses. On Saturday night, protesters also advanced towards Biren Singh’s ancestral residence at Luwangsangbam in Imphal East but were stopped short of 100-200 metres by security forces. Security personnel, including Assam Rifles, BSF and state forces, fired several rounds of tear gas shells, rubber bullets to disperse the protesters and foiled the attempt to damage Singh’s house, officials said.

Later, protesters burnt tyres on the main road leading to Biren Singh’s residence and piled iron roads to prevent vehicular movement. Protests continued till around 11 pm in Mantripukhri area, some 3-4 km from the CM’s ancestral home. Many of the protesters had come in vehicles from other constituencies, and not from the Heingang Assembly seat, which the CM represented.

On Sunday morning, the situation remained calm but tense in all five districts of Imphal Valley, where an indefinite curfew has been imposed and internet services suspended following violent protests after the discovery of the bodies of six persons, three women and children each, allegedly abducted and killed by militants in Jiribam. Piles of burnt debris remained on the roads of state capital Imphal, a day after the violent protests.

Security forces have intensified patrolling in parts of Imphal and increased deployment at many of the residences of legislators which were attacked on Saturday as well as all major roads leading to the Capital town. On Saturday, agitators ransacked the houses of three legislators, including that of Biren Singh’s son-in-law RK Imo, who is also a BJP MLA, and set their properties on fire while security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse protesters in different parts of Imphal, police said. Among the ministers whose residences were stormed by the protesters are Sapam Ranjan, L Susindro Singh and Y Khemchand, an official said.

Curfew was imposed for an indefinite period in Imphal East and West, Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching districts of Imphal Valley “due to developing law and order situation”, he said.

The state administration suspended internet services temporarily in seven districts in the wake of protesters storming the residences of state ministers and MLAs, another official said. Besides Imo, agitators also vandalised the properties of BJP legislator Sapam Kunjakesore and MLA Joykishan Singh. They also gheraoed the houses of JD(U) MLA of Wangkhei seat, T Arun, and BJP legislator Karam Shyam of Langthabal.

Protesters, who had come to meet Keishamthong’s Independent legislator Sapam Nishikanta Singh at his residence on Tiddim Road in Imphal West, targeted the office building of a local newspaper owned by him after they were informed that the legislator was not present in the state. The mob destroyed some temporary structures in front of the office building, another official said. Agitators also set tyres on fire in the middle of a road in Thangmeiband area, just 200 metres away from the assembly building. At Keisampat Bridge, tear gas shells were fired to disperse protesters who were attempting to march towards several buildings, including Raj Bhavan, and the secretariat, police said.

The bodies of the 10 Kuki-Zo youths killed in a gunfight with security personnel in Jiribam were on Saturday airlifted to Churachandpur from Assam’s Silchar town, where the autopsies were conducted. Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi ordered temporary suspension of internet and mobile data services in the “territorial jurisdiction of currently affected districts of Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Kakching, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur for two days with effect from 5.15 pm on Saturday. The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body representing civil society organisations of Imphal Valley, demanded military action on militants within 24 hours. At night, miscreants set fire to at least two churches and three houses in Jiribam town, officials said.