New Delhi: Hill-based tribal students’ bodies in Manipur have condemned Delhi police action against students from the northeastern Indian state in the national capital.

Several people from Manipur were wounded June 8 when Delhi police and Manipur Rifles personnel cracked down students protesting against three contentious bills outside the Manipur Bhawan.

The incident provoked the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur and other groups to convene an emergency meeting the same evening at Nagaram in Manipur capital of Imphal.

In a statement, the groups expressed anguish over what they termed as police assault on “peaceful and unarmed” tribal protesters.

It said the peace protest turned violent after the police used batons to beat the protesters without warning. Such unprecedented use of “excessive force” against the peaceful and unarmed tribal protesters was unwarranted, the statement added.

The student body alleged that some people had thrown stones from inside the Manipur Bhawan. Police thrashed, kicked and slapped men and women protesters and detained some 60 people, including 12 women, in police custody for 12 hours. The group also alleged the Delhi police had molested women protesters.

A number of tribal people suffered cuts and bruises, the statement noted.

The police said they had to resort to batoning when the protesters tried to break through the barricade around Manipur Bhawan.

The tribal students’ organizations encompassing the federating units of three students’ apex bodies lauded the Manipur Tribal Forum Delhi leaders and protesters for their sacrifices and unflinching support in the effort to achieve the desired goal of the tribals, the union said.

President Pranab Mukherjee has withheld assent to the Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015, with the suggestion that a fresh bill be drafted in consultation with legal and constitutional experts keeping in mind the need to protect and preserve the indigenous people of the state and the concerns of the hill and valley people.

As for the other two bills – The Manipur Land Reform and Land Revenue (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015, and The Shops & Establishment (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2015 – the delegation was told by federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh that they were being examined by experts for “reasonable conclusion.”

The protesters alleged that Manipur Rifles personnel posted at the Bhawan joined the police in targeting them. They also claimed that Manipur Rifles personnel threw bricks at the protesting students.

The three bills were pending with the federal government since last year and the indigenous people have been agitating against them. They refused to cremate the bodies of the nine who died during a protest in Churachandpur.

The apprehension of the indigenous community is that the three bills are an effort to grab hill people’s land in the name of inner-line permit.