Guwahati: The small town of Sugnu, situated about 66 km from Manipur’s capital Imphal and about 27 km from Churachandpur, could have been considered ‘lucky’ to have remained peaceful even as large parts of the state burned. However, their luck ran out on May 28. Sugnu emerged as a key area of confrontation, witnessing ethnic clashes, resulting in loss of life and property and leaving hundreds homeless.
Among the hundreds who lost their homes was Leimapokpam Rahul Singh, 18, a promising boxer who trains at the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Special Area Games Centre at Utlou in Bishnupur district.
Having already cleared the selection trials for the 6th Youth Men’s National Boxing championships in Gangtok, Rahul was caught in two minds: stay back and support his displaced family or focus on the tournament, scheduled at the Paljor Indoor Stadium in Sikkim from June 13-18.
“It was a difficult decision…all I wanted was my family’s safety and usually, one is never prepared for such tough situations. When the situation arises, one is hardly in the mental state to even think about sports. But then my mother asked me to focus on my career and participate in the championship,” Rahul told EastMojo while recalling the words of his mother when he left for Guwahati on June 10.
Born to fish farmers Leimapokpam Sekhor and Leimapokpam Shilla, Rahul started boxing in 2021 and is participating in his second Youth Nationals. Although he lost at the pre-quarter stage in the men’s 80kg category, he is happy that he and his Manipur teammates could go to Sikkim even as their home state reels under violence.
“For the past two months, we hardly had any training. Most of the boys are from nearby areas of Imphal while one (Rahul) is from Sugnu. His house was torched during the clashes and his family remains displaced,” P Dhanajit Singh, the secretary of the Manipur Amateur Boxing Association, told EastMojo.
“Last week, there was violence near my house in Imphal and around nine people were killed. The situation hasn’t improved. And in the middle of the curfew, we somehow managed to conduct the selection trials for the women’s youth nationals to be held in Bhopal from June 25 to July 1,” Singh added.
While Rahul’s mother and elder sister are now at a relief camp in Imphal West, his father is in Sugnu, camping in a local school along with a few others, hoping to save whatever they ever had.
“Our house was completely burnt down. We somehow managed to escape unhurt, and I and my mother and sister were sent to the relief camp in Imphal West. All we could get to the camp was the clothes which we were wearing, nothing else. I still get nightmares recalling that fateful day,” said Rahul before boarding the train from New Jalpaiguri to Guwahati.
“My father refused to come to Imphal with us. He wanted to protect whatever we ever had. We could not save our home but he wanted to protect the place we had. We come from an agricultural family; my parents were into fish farming. He is currently in a camp in the local school along with a few others,” Rahul continued.
“When I entered the ring, I wanted to focus on my game but I was more concerned about the situation in Manipur, and the safety of my near ones,” he said, describing his mental state during the competition.
At the relief camp in Imphal West, Rahul kept himself busy with a few sessions of shadowboxing even though he wasn’t in the mental state to head to Sikkim.
“I was training alone at the camp. Although I did not want to leave my mother and sister there, my mother insisted that I take the flight to Guwahati. ‘We’ll be fine, don’t worry about us,’” he said.
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As Rahul boarded the train to Guwahati, he wasn’t quite sure about his destination. The 2022 Khelo India Youth Games bronze medallist’s hostel at the SAI centre in Bishnupur has also been converted to a relief camp. For now, the relief camp that has housed his family for close to a month is Rahul’s new address.
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