Around 11.30pm on Friday, Purnima Saini spoke over the phone from her Bankura home to her husband Arup Saini, a CRPF head constable posted in Manipur, discussing their two children.
When the phone rang again sometime after 12.45am on Saturday, Purnima picked it up to hear Arup groan in pain, saying he had been shot and would not survive.
Arup, 39, was one of two CRPF men killed by suspected Kuki militants at Naranseina in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, the latest victims of a continuing unrest that has underlined the Centre and the state government’s poor handling of the situation.
The couple have two children, both younger than six.
“During the first call, we spoke about our children and what they were doing at home,” Purnima, 34, said from her home in Panchal village in Bankura’s Sonamukhi area.
Purnima added: “He told me it was raining heavily there. Suddenly the call got disconnected. I thought it was a network issue.”
Purnima waited for Arup to call back if connectivity improved. The call came about an hour later. “As soon as I picked up the phone, I heard my husband howl in pain. In a croaky voice, he said ‘Amar guli legechhe, ami ar banchbo na (I have been shot, I won’t survive)’,” she told this newspaper, breaking down.
Arup also called his younger brother Dhananjay, who lives in Chhattisgarh, and told him he had been hit by bullets and was in severe pain.
A CRPF official said: “Armed Kuki militants indiscriminately fired from the hills at the Indian Reserve Battalion camp at Naranseina killing two of our personnel.”
The other man killed in the attack, which took place amid a storm, was sub-inspector N. Sarkar, 55, from Assam. Inspector Jadav Das and constable Aftab Hussain were injured.
Arup was last month transferred from Srinagar to BJP-ruled Manipur, where ethnic violence between the Hindu Meiteis and Christian Kuki-Zo has since May 3 last year killed at least 227 people and displaced 60,000.
Youngest brother Swarup said Arup would not have died if the Centre had taken proper steps to ensure peace. “It’s almost a year that Manipur has remained in the grip of violence, but the central and state governments have failed to bring peace,” Swarup, a cook at a Bankura hotel, said. “After my brother’s death, who will take responsibility of the family?”
Addressing a rally in Ushagram, Asansol, chief minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the BJP. “Manipur has started to burn again. I heard that two jawans have been killed…. I condole with the families. But what did you (Modi) do in the past one year?” she said.
“Why did the central government fail to bring normalcy back in Manipur? Why didn’t you (Modi) go to Manipur? Why were 200 churches set on fire? Why were women forced to parade naked (during the violence last year)?”
Arup’s body reached Calcutta in the evening and was taken to the office of the Bengal IG of the CRPF. “His body will reach Bankura by early Sunday morning,” a CRPF source said.
The militant attack took place along Meitei-majority Bishnupur district’s border with Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur district.
“There was also a blast.... It was quite dark. The forces retaliated but before that they (militants) fired on the camp inmates,” state security adviser Kuldiep Singh said in Manipur. “This is the first time they have attacked the forces.”
Additional reporting by Umanand Jaiswal from Barpeta, Assam
