Amit Shah cancels Maharashtra rallies, returns to Delhi over Manipur crisis

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday cancelled his rallies in poll-bound Maharashtra and is headed back to Delhi as the situation in Manipur continues to be volatile, according to sources.

The home minister is likely to hold a meeting to review the situation in the northeastern state, the sources said.

Irate mobs set fire to the residences of three more BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley on Saturday night even as security forces foiled an attempt by agitators to storm the ancestral residence of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Shah was supposed to attend a few election rallies as part of the BJP's campaign in Maharashtra but he has cancelled them and is returning to the national capital, the sources said.

Though there was no official word on the reason behind the cancellation of the minister's rallies, the sources indicated that it could be due to the volatile situation in Manipur.

The home minister is likely to hold a meeting with top officers in Delhi to review the situation in Manipur, the sources said.

A team of central security officers is expected to visit Manipur soon to assess the situation and assist the state government in tackling the situation, they said.

The fresh incidents of violence 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 in the day.

The angry mobs 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 Thokchom Lokeshwar in Imphal East district, according to officials.

On Sunday morning, there was a tense calm in all five districts of the Imphal Valley, where the curfew was imposed and internet services were suspended following violent protests after the discovery of the bodies of six people who were allegedly abducted and killed by militants in Jiribam.