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Cop among 4 killed, Manipur on the boil
Since May 3, the state has been gripped by ethnic clashes – primarily between the tribal Kukis, and majority Meiteis, the dominant community in Imphal Valley.
Four people, including a police commando, were killed as fresh incidents of violence convulsed Manipur in the early hours of Friday, police said, taking the death toll in the ethnic unrest which began more than two months ago to 127.
According to police, the first instance of violence was reported in Kangvai, near the border between Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts, where two groups of people opened fire at one another.
Churachandpur superintendent of police (SP) Karthik Malladi said the exchange of fire began around 1.30am when armed miscreants from one group allegedly attacked villages belonging to another. After a lull of a few hours, the firing between the two sides resumed and continued till security forces brought the situation under control, he said.
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“Two men died and three were injured in the violence that broke out early on Friday at Kangvai, near the border between Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts,” the SP said.
“Village defence personnel of the two groups were involved in a gunfight. The situation is now under control, but we are keeping a close watch,” he added.
Police said the injured people are undergoing treatment at a hospital. In a separate incident, a teenager was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Bishnupur district on Friday morning, police said, according to news agency PTI. The teen, police said, was hurrying to take cover as the gunmen fired indiscriminately at Phoubakchao locality, when he was hit by a bullet.
According to news agency PTI, the policeman was killed in a gun battle with suspected militants at Moirang Turel Mapan in the evening.
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The continuing chain of violence in the state highlighted once again the deep ethnic divisions in Manipur and the kind of social rifts that the administration needs to bridge in order to bring normalcy back to the state after two months of riots. This needs to be done urgently.
Since May 3, the northeastern state has been gripped by ethnic clashes – primarily between the tribal Kukis, which mostly reside in the hill districts, and majority Meiteis, the dominant community in Imphal Valley.
Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after Kuki groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community. Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders.
In some semblance of a return to normalcy, schools for classes 1 to 8 resumed on Wednesday, but the killing of a woman by unidentified men near a school in Imphal West a day later sparked fresh security concerns.
Meanwhile, five Members of Parliament from Communist Party of India (Marxist) visited Churachandpur district on Friday to take stock of the situation. During their stay, the MPs – four from Kerala and one from West Bengal – also visited two relief camps in the district.
