India, Oct. 14 -- The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has protested the demolition of the Manipur Rajbari (Redlands Building) at Laitumkhrah, Shillong.

It called it "an act of historical insensitivity" that has deeply wounded the collective sentiment of the Manipuri people.

The Rajbari, the ex-residence of Maharaja Bodhachandra Singh and the site where the 1949 Merger Agreement of Manipur with India was signed, was dismantled under the "Infrastructure Development of Heritage Complex, Rajbari, Shillong" project by the Planning and Development Authority (PDA), Government of Manipur.

COCOMI refuted the official claim "that the building was structurally unsafe and termite-infested."

"The Rajbari is not merely a struct...