Ibobi Singh: Reassuring

Imphal, March 2: The Manipur government will send a ministerial team to Nagaland to search for a truck driver and his helper who went missing from Dimapur on January 24. The truck is also untraced.

In response to the Opposition?s demand for taking immediate steps to find the truck drivers, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh told the House today that he would send a ministerial team to assist the Nagaland government to resolve the case, but did not specify any date.

Truck driver Md Salimuddin alias Ibothem, 38, and his 13-year-old helper Arif Khan, both from Yairipok in Thoubal district, went missing from Dimapur on their way to Imphal from Guwahati.

According to reports, the duo left Guwahati with a truckload of chicken feed on January 23. Next day, the truck recorded its entry at the main gate Dimapur, Nagaland?s business hub, but after that there has been no trace of them.

Ibobi Singh said unofficial reports suggest that the truck is somewhere in Dimapur, but this could not be confirmed.

The chief minister told the House that his government was in constant touch with Nagaland on the case and had also taken up the problem of Manipur?s truck drivers plying on the Imphal-Dimapur Road in general with the neighbouring government.

Raising the matter, three Opposition members ? Nimaichand Luwang of Manipur Peoples Party and L. Ibomcha Singh and S. Chandra Singh of Federal Party of Manipur ? urged the state government to initiate immediate measures in consultation with the Nagaland government to check abduction, extortion and harassment of Manipur truck drivers along the Imphal-Kohima national highway. They cautioned that unless the case was resolved soon, it could create a serious law and order problem in the state.

The Opposition members also urged the chief minister to open helplines at Mao in Manipur or Kohima in Nagaland to extend help to Manipur?s truckers in times of crisis.

Responding to another call attention motion, Ibobi Singh assured the House that Maibam Naobi Devi, a girl picked up by the police from the house of PLA activist Kh. Vikash alias Romen, would be freed if she was found innocent.

Naobi was picked up when she came to attend the funeral of another activist of the Peoples Liberation Army who had died in an encounter with police at Thoubal bazaar on January 20.

She is said to be the killed cadre?s girlfriend.

Alleging that police misbehaved with Naobi in custody, the Opposition warned that if the charge was true it could trigger an agitation similar to the one kicked up by Thangjam Manorama?s alleged rape and custodial killing by the Assam Rifles.