A woman officer with the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) at Bishnupur was gunned down by Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) militants on Wednesday. Saikhom Rasheswori (55) was shot dead while she was inside her office.This is the third instance of women being targeted within the last six weeks. Earlier, former Imphal Municipal Council vice-chairman Komblatombi Devi had been gunned down at her residence in Imphal, while a housewife had been killed by the UNLF.The KCP (MC) said Rasheswori had been killed for alleged corruption and for not withholding fresh appointment lists of anganwadi workers and helpers for the department. While police are yet to come out with any leads on the whereabouts or identity of the attackers, their reports said two persons walked into Rasheswori’s office and shot her twice in the head at point blank range. Incidentally, her husband Saikhom Brajagopal, who had contested as an Independent in the 1980 Assembly elections, had been gunned down by suspected KCP activists in 1981.Social Welfare Department workers came out against the killing with public protests in the state capital. The employees locked the gates of the main office in the state capital and organised sit-in protests in central Imphal, despite a ban issued by the KCP (MC) on public protests against the killing of the official. The militant group in a statement issued to the local media warned that it may resort to setting off bombs in public places if its diktats were not followed.Social Welfare Minister N Loken, who visited the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences where Rasheswori’s body had been brought for post-mortem, condemned the killing while adding that “killing first and accusing later is nothing new in Manipur”.
