Tension prevailed in Manipur’s Churachandpur town on Friday following Thursday night’s vandalism of an open gym and the venue of a public meeting in the New Lamka area and the standoff between protesters and security personnel on Friday afternoon.

The state home department had said on Thursday night that “suspected volunteers and supporters” of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a conglomerate of recognised tribes in Churachandpur, were involved in the vandalism of the gym.

The ITLF had on Thursday called for “non-cooperation” on government-related programmes” and a “total shutdown” in Churachandpur district from 8am to 4pm on Friday in protest against the government’s “failure” to address its “grievances and apprehensions (about the survey carried out by the government) pertaining to reserve forests/protected forest wetlands/wildlife and the eviction of villages”.

Those familiar with the situation said Thursday night’s vandalism and Friday’s protest were the outcomes of “pent-up anger” over the “government survey and eviction of villages located inside forest areas even though the villages have been set up much before the forest was notified in 1966”.

The home department, apprehending further trouble, had suspended Internet data services in two adjacent districts — Churachandpur and Pherzawl — on Thursday night itself for five days to “prevent any disturbance of peace and public order” in both the adjoining districts. Section 144 of the CrPC has also been imposed in Churachandpur district but the “focus” was on the town.

Chief minister N. Biren Singh, who was supposed to inaugurate the gym housed in the PT Sports Complex and also address the nearby public function at Sadhbhav Mandap in the New Lamka area on Friday afternoon, called off his trip following an “appeal” by the organisers owing to the “law and order issues and people’s sentiments”.

The stand-off between security personnel and protesters, who had gathered near the venue of the public function where the chief minister was supposed to address in the afternoon, ended around 4pm, an official said. However, sources said the situation remains tense in Churachandpur town, which is about 62km away from the state capital Imphal.

The security personnel had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd at the venue following stone-pelting by some protesters in the afternoon.Police said nobody was hurt as they had taken proper precautions.