The Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Association has condemned the killing of an income tax officer by a mob in violence-hit Manipur.
In a tweet late on May 5 night, the IRS Association said Imphal-based Income Tax Department officer Letminthang Haokip was killed after ethnic violence between two communities broke out on May 3.
“IRS Association strongly condemns the dastardly act of violence resulting in the death of Sh. Letminthang Haokip, Tax Assistant in Imphal. No cause or ideology can justify the killing of an innocent public servant on duty. Our thoughts are with his family in this difficult hour,” the association said on its Twitter handle.
Locals said the young IRS officer was dragged out of his official apartment and beaten to death.
The IRS officer’s death followed that of Chonkholen Haokip, a CRPF constable of the force’s elite CoBRA unit who was on leave. Officials in Manipur said he was killed on Friday afternoon when some people dressed in police-like uniforms attacked his village Lhunjang in the Bishnupur district.
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Neither the State police nor the armed forces handling law and order in the State have said how many people have been killed. But the media based out of Imphal, quoting unnamed authorities, said more than 50 bodies have been deposited in three major hospitals.
These are the Regional Institution of Medical Sciences, the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, and the Churachandpur District Hospital.
Among the dead was an undersecretary in the Agriculture Department and her son, the reports said.
