Manipur: Manipur's insurgency-infested areas have another killer that claims innocent lives. Landmines. The recent death of two children in Manipur's Churachandpur district has brought back the spotlight onto this problem.
Fighting to put his life back in place in a hospital in Guwahati, six-year-old Khundrakpam will survive but his life will never be the same.
He and two of his friends had gone to play in the fields near their home in Churachandpur and unknowingly stepped on a landmine. Two died on the spot and Khundrakpam was critical injured.
"This is going to escalate into a worst crisis if we just continue doing it. We have not taken it for fact that there are certain things which are out their in the fields and we have to determined weather these are really widespread as it has been alleged or they are only in isolated areas which can be demine easily," Editor, Impress Free Press Pradip Phanjoubam said.
As militants of different ethnic groups in Manipur try to outdo each other for control of hilly regions, the worst affected are those living there. In many villages of Churachandpur farmers have stopped going to their farms fearing landmines.
The army claims that it routinely clears out landmines but the fatalities have only risen.
"We have our IeD detention and destruction team to defuse these IeDs and sanitize the area whenever we get to know of it and at the same time we have undertaken deliberate efforts to avert causality by clearing the villagers and fields," PRO Army, Manipur Lt. Colonel SD Goswami said.
Human rights groups have criticised the Army and the Manipur government for failing to clear the area of mines.
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