Manipur police on Sunday released names of four militants who were killed in a gunfight at Jiribam a day ago, claiming three of them were members of the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA), a group that is under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact with the central government, and the fourth a member of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF-P), a Meitei insurgent group, that signed a peace pact with the central government last year.
The police shared details of the identity of the four men but did not comment on how members of the two surrendered groups were involved in the gunfight. For the last 16 months, after violence broke out in May 2023, Meitei groups have accused militants under the SoO pact of being involved in the violence, while Kuki groups have accused the Meitei secessionist group UNLF of leading the attacks on Kuki villages.
In a statement on Sunday night related to Saturday’s violence in Jiribam district, police said they had found five unidentified bodies after a gunfight at the tea estate of Rashidpur Part II. “Three are of Kuki militants and one is of a village volunteer who initiated the attack,” police said. The police released the names of the three KLA members as Seiminlen Khongsai, Haogoulen Doungel, and Nehboithang Haokip, all residents of Churachandpur district.
The fifth dead body was identified as Baspatimayum Lakhi Kumar Sharma, a member of UNLF(P) and a resident of Dibong Khunou, Jiribam district.
{{/usCountry}}The fifth dead body was identified as Baspatimayum Lakhi Kumar Sharma, a member of UNLF(P) and a resident of Dibong Khunou, Jiribam district.
{{/usCountry}}Seilen Haokip, spokesperson of the SoO groups that have signed an agreement with the central government, said, “People who are at the forefront defending their villages in Manipur are not from groups under SoO. They are village defence volunteers. Cadres under SoO are following the terms of the agreement and are obliged to stay confined in their camps.”
The Manipur government led by chief minister N Biren Singh has sought the SoO be scrapped. The SoO is a tripartite agreement signed in 2008 to cease hostilities between 25 Kuki insurgent groups, the central government and the Manipur government. But the Biren Singh government has pulled out of it, accusing Kuki groups of violating the terms and conditions.
Incidents of violence continued in different parts of Manipur on Sunday, marking it the seventh continuous day when parts of the state were besieged by gunfights related to the ethnic clashes. In the last one week, violence has spread to different districts, including Imphal West, Imphal East, Churachandpur, Kangpongpoki, Bishnupur, and Jiribam. On Sunday, a 50-year-old woman was reportedly killed, a day after six casualties were reported in what was the deadliest day of the ethnic clashes in the state this year.