Students of the Khongjom Standard English School inspect the damage in Thoubal on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, Nov. 17: One more school was set on fire in Manipur last night despite security cover being thrown around all the educational institutions in the valley districts.

Police suspect that supporters of class boycott campaign set ablaze Khongjom Standard English School, a private institution at Shivnagar in Thoubal, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s home district, around 9.30 last night after dousing it with petrol.

The arson comes two days after the chief minister said the ongoing class boycott campaign had not affected educational institutions in Thoubal district.

Six classrooms and property worth Rs 10 lakh were destroyed in last night’s fire though residents reacted immediately and doused the inferno.

With this, six schools, all located in the valley, have been set on fire in the past few weeks.

Students from various schools in Thoubal formed human chains at various places in the district to protest against the arson.

This is the first time that arsonists have targeted a private school. The school had reopened a few days ago.

Classes had been paralysed in the valley areas since the All Manipur Students’ Union, the Manipuri Students’ Federation and the Kangleipak Students’ Association launched a class boycott campaign on September 9.

The organisations launched the campaign in support of the Apunba Lup’s demand for the resignation of Ibobi Singh in the wake of the July 23 firing in which passerby Rabina Devi and former militant Ch. Sanjit were killed in an alleged fake encounter by police commandos here.

As the academic atmosphere came to a standstill, there was pressure on the government to restore normalcy.

As schools started resuming classes with assurances of security, suspected supporters of the class boycott campaign resorted to arson.

The arson came at a time when the Ibobi Singh government was trying to make a peace deal with the Apunba Lup. The first round of talks was held two weeks ago, but the parleys appear to have failed to make any progress since.

The arson continue despite alertness on the part of police and other security agencies.

As part of the counter-measures, education minister L. Jayentakumar Singh has started distributing fire extinguishers to educational institutions.

Around the time the school was attacked, a police team allegedly barged into the boys’ hostel of D.M. College of Arts here and harassed the students.

In protest against the harassment, boys and girls from four colleges — D.M. College of Arts, D.M. College of Science, D.M. College of Commerce and G.P. College — staged a sit-in at the gate of D.M. College of Arts today.

The students demanded action against the police personnel and threatened to vacate their hostels in protest against the alleged police harassment last night.

“I was sleeping last night. Some commandos barged into my room and threatened to arrest me. I do not know why they did this to me,” Khatsolo Lasuh, a BA second year student, said.

Boarders of the college said the police commandos entered the rooms of some of the students and asked them to produce their guns.

However, the police did not arrest any student.

“We demand an assurance from the police that such incidents will not recur. If they fail to give the assurance by noon tomorrow, the students will vacate the hostels,” the general secretary of DM College of Arts Students Union, M. Santosh, said.

The principal of the college, Kh. Chaoba, said he was trying to resolve the matter amicably.