Babloo Loitongbam

Imphal: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday urged the Union government of India for protection of a Manipur-based human rights activist for “speaking out on inter-communal violence.”

The United Nations raised alarm over threats to Babloo Loitongbam, a prominent human rights activist based in Manipur’s capital Imphal, by some Meitei organizations/groups amid the Manipur unrest due to ongoing communal violence.

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The UN tweeted, “We are alarmed by threats to human rights defender Babloo Loitongbam by Meitei Leepun & Arambai Tengol groups in Manipur for speaking out on inter-communal violence since May. We urged authorities to protect him, his family & home, & hold perpetrators accountable.”

The concern of the UN has come a day after the Meitei Leepun (ML), a powerful cultural outfit for strengthening and preserving the Meitei values announced a social boycott of human rights activist Loitongbam and former Additional DGP of Manipur Police, Thounaojam Brinda, for their hate speeches inciting the communal violence in the state.

Loitongbam, a lawyer and human rights activist, director of the Human Rights Alert in Manipur in an interview stated that the role of the Meitei indigenous civil bodies over the years has significantly been less amidst the emergence of new groups including the Arambai Tenggol and ML to which militancy ideas are being injected in their blood.

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