A tense 48 hours in Manipur between Saturday and Monday has pulled in five of the northeastern state’s communities into the spiralling violence that has killed 360 people over three years.
In these 48 hours, clashes broke out for the first time between Meitei Hindus and Meitei Pangals or Muslims, leading to a death and the burning of houses; three Meitei men were gunned down by militants, leading to the resurfacing of an ethnic hostility that first stoked the clashes in 2023; and tensions continued to simmer between the Kuki and Naga communities with one death and several injured, at least 50 houses burnt.
Also Read I Manipur: Kuki man killed; 6 houses torched amid shutdown over Meitei killings
Security personnel described the last two days as a security nightmare because the latest chain of events opens a series of new challenges.
“It is a security nightmare when multiple challenges happen at the same time across different areas. The CM had to hurriedly call a meeting of the joint security forces, including the army. This was not a scheduled meeting but had to be called. Some members of the unified command were also not in Imphal at that time,” a senior security officer said, on conditions of anonymity.
Ethnic tensions escalate
{{/usCountry}}“It is a security nightmare when multiple challenges happen at the same time across different areas. The CM had to hurriedly call a meeting of the joint security forces, including the army. This was not a scheduled meeting but had to be called. Some members of the unified command were also not in Imphal at that time,” a senior security officer said, on conditions of anonymity.
Ethnic tensions escalate
{{/usCountry}}The disturbing sequence began at 2pm on Saturday when a Kuki man was shot dead and three others injured in Chassad village in Manipur’s Kamjong district. Kuki groups blamed Nagas. By night, at least 50 houses belonging to both communities were burnt. Gunfights also broke out between armed Naga and Kuki groups in other parts of Kamjong that night. The police headquarters in Imphal rushed a new Border Security Force (BSF) team to Kamjong.
But around 100 km away from Kamjong, trouble was brewing in Thoubal, close to the state capital Imphal. At 11.20pm on Saturday, stone-pelting broke out between Meiteis and Pangals attending a music festival in Khangabok Pali town. What began as a confrontation between two people escalated into stone pelting, a person shot dead and houses set on fire.
“At around 12.40 am, one individual succumbed to his injuries, these were bullet injuries, at Raj Medicity, while several others were injured,” said Manipur’s ADG Lhari Dorjee Lhatoo.
Police clamped a curfew, against the backdrop of Meiteis and Pangals clashing multiple times, dating back to 1993 when over 100 people were killed.
Barely 20 minutes after stone-pelting broke out, the Manipur Police control room received another alert.
At 11.41pm on Saturday, a Central Reserve Police Force team came under an IED attack in Singjamei, around 20km from the site of the Thoubal clash. The blast left three CRPF officers injured. They were rushed to Raj Medicity hospital, where the body of the Meitei man killed in Thoubal violence was also being brought around the same time.
By 1.50 am on Sunday, the violence in Thoubal was over. But more trouble was in the offing.
At 9.40 am on Monday, an ambush was reported 47 km away from the Thoubal stone pelting site. Unidentified armed militants opened fire on a group of 16 Meitei villagers, most of them woodcutters, who were transporting chopped firewood at Sunulok Hill under Sagolmang police station. “In the incident, three individuals succumbed to bullet injuries. Three other individuals have also sustained injuries,” Lhatoo said. Meitei civil society groups and Meitei political leaders blamed Kuki groups.
In this case, security forces arrested two militants and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.
Flare up catches officials off guard
Security officials said the sequence of events caught both security forces and the political establishment by surprise, prompting chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh to urgently convene a meeting of the unified command later that evening. The command brings together officers from all security forces deployed in the state to coordinate security operations.
A security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing of the three woodcutters could further strain relations between Kukis and Meiteis at a time when there were some signs of improvement – such as last Friday, when Kuki groups urged deputy CM Nemcha Kipgen to begin working from Meitei-dominated Imphal as things had improved. Ethnic tensions had forced Kipgen to operate from Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi and stay away from Imphal.
In the last few months, interstate buses (with Meitei passengers) also started from Imphal to Dimapur via Kangpokpi and there were reports of Kuki people using the airport in Imphal – a rare occurrence since 2023.
In another development on Sunday at around 6.30 pm, an inebriated Meitei man, who had accidentally entered into a Kuki-Zo village in Ukhrul was handed to the Army’s 4 Mahar Regiment.
The officer also cited the Manipur government’s decision to have a Kuki police officer lead the parade at the police force’s raising day on Monday, a first in three years. “It must have taken police days to consider and check intelligence reports to have a Kuki police officer lead a parade in Imphal. Just when things seemed to be improving, the resurgence of Meitei-Kuki violence after all these months was unexpected,” the officer cited above said.
Around the time the chief minister was at the Raising Day function, forces faced another challenge, this time right outside the CM’s residence.
At around 1pm on Monday, a group of people arrived in a truck and left the bodies of two of the three Meitei victims on the road, demanding action against Kuki militants. Security forces fired tear gas shells and quickly removed the bodies.
Also Read I Manipur’s rare 48 hours: How all five communities got caught in violence
The three woodcutters were killed near a Naga stronghold, close to the boundary between Meitei-dominated Imphal and Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi. As Meitei groups and their leaders accused Kuki militants of being behind the killings, the United Naga Council (UNC) issued a statement condemning the deaths, accusing the Kuki groups and reiterating that Nagas were not involved. Kuki leader Nemcha Kipgen too issued a statement condemning the killings and appealing to citizens to remain calm, reject rumours and refrain from retaliatory violence.
“Nagas are already in a war with Kuki groups, as are the Meiteis. Both cannot afford to fight each other so all misunderstandings or rumours are cleared quickly. At a time when three communities were trapped in conflict, the Gorkha and Pangals had remained untouched. But they too have been caught up in the violence this weekend,” the officer added.
In these 48 hours, on Sunday at 11.40 am, a Nepali couple was injured when unidentified militants fired at their car in Kamjong district on the NH-202 highway. The couple survived the attack. Police suspect the case to be that of mistaken identity - militants mistaking them for being Nagas or Kukis.