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Two jawans, five locals injured as firing continues in Manipur
Two battalions of the India Reserve Battalion — a special armed force of the state — were deployed in the area to control the firing.
New Delhi: At least seven people, including two India Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel, were injured as armed miscreants from both Kuki and Meitei communities in ethnic strife-torn Manipur engaged in intermittent firing throughout Wednesday, people aware of the matter said.
Officials in the security forces confirmed that intermittent firing between two groups of armed miscreants have continued for over 36 hours in the hills and valley near Naranseina village in Bishnupur district.
The firings started on Tuesday morning after a 26-year-old farmer, Salam Jotin Singh, a resident of Naranseina, was shot by miscreants. Singh sustained a bullet injury, but survived.
“Columns of army and Assam Rifles are present at the spot. The situation is tense but firing has finally stopped just now,” a senior security officer said on Wednesday night, requesting anonymity. Miscreants from the hills also fired mortars, while those in the valley used automatic guns, the officer added.
Two battalions of the India Reserve Battalion — a special armed force of the state — were deployed in the area to control the firing. The miscreants also attacked the IRB personnel, resulting in bullet injuries to two jawans. “The condition of the jawans is fine. The five civilians who also sustained bullet wounds are also stable. Their injuries are not life threatening,” the officer cited above said.
IRB is posted along with other paramilitary forces, Army and Assam Rifles to restore normalcy in Manipur, which has been in the grip of ethnic clashes between numerically dominant Meiteis and tribal Kukis since May 3. At least 157 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 displaced in the ongoing violence in the northeastern state.
Meanwhile, security forces in a joint operation with the police have recovered at least 13 grenades, 10 grenade launchers, M-16 rifle and other weapons besides 19 explosives and three IEDs from two different places in the forested areas of Imphal West and Thoubal districts.
The weapons, officials said, were abandoned in the jungle area. Police suspect the recovered grenades and rifles are part of the ammunition looted from the police armoury in the first two months of the ethnic clashes in Manipur.
On Tuesday, two men were killed and six injured in separate incidents of violence near Narainsena village in Bishnupur. While one of the victims was killed by a bullet wound, the other died when a countrymade gun he was using misfired and hit him on his face.
Following the first incident in which farmer Jotin Singh was shot, miscreants from both Kuki and Meitei communities started firing at each other in the areas around Narainsena and the foothills nearby bordering Bishnupur and Churachandpur, the epicentre of the ongoing ethnic strife in the state.
