Myanmar nationals among people detained in Manipur day after policeman’s killing

The government has maintained that terror groups from Myanmar and Bangladesh were fuelling violence in Manipur

Security forces on Wednesday detained 44 people, including at least 32 Myanmar nationals, from Manipur’s Moreh town for questioning during a cordon and search operation launched after the killing of a police officer on Tuesday and an ambush later in the day, officials aware of the matter said.

The policeman was shot dead in Moreh. (REUTERS)

“Police are probing their role. Details will be shared in the [Wednesday] evening,” said an official, who did not want to be named.

Officials probing the two attacks suspect the attackers may have fled to Myanmar. The government has maintained that terror groups from Myanmar and Bangladesh were fuelling violence in Manipur.

The National Investigation Agency has registered a case to probe the conspiracy behind the ethnic violence between dominant Meitei and tribal Kuki communities, which was triggered in May and has left 178 people dead and around 50,000 displaced.

The search and cordon operations near the India-Myanmar border started on Tuesday hours after Moreh’s sub-divisional police officer Chingtham Anand Kumar was shot dead. Kumar was overseeing the cleaning of the grounds of a school for the construction of a helipad.

Three police personnel were injured when reinforcements on their way to the spot were ambushed along the Imphal-Moreh highway.