On Thursday, four people died, including two who had been hurt by splinters the day before, as a violent exchange of fire resumed between two groups in the areas bordering the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts of Manipur for the third day in a row.
According to a defense source, Meitei-dominated Bishnupur’s women-led organizations have been preventing more security troops from accessing the locations where the two factions have been engaged in bloody gunfire since August 29’s early morning hours.
The Manipur police said that an exchange of fire had occurred between armed miscreants at Lonphai and Khousabung. “Security forces deployed in the area responded, and subsequently, firing has subsided. The situation is tense but under control,” a police statement said.
Kuki’s fresh demands
Even when A.K. Mishra, the Union Home Ministry’s security adviser for the North East, spoke with the Kuki-Zo rebel groups that are party to an agreement for the suspension of operations (SoO) with the government, the bloodshed persisted. The SoO groups have increased their prior demand for a separate administration and are now calling for the creation of a Union Territory with a legislature for the districts in Manipur that are predominately Kuki-Zo-Hmar. The discussions will go on into Friday.
Given that both of the state’s primary tribal groups coexist in many regions, the demand is likely to cause concern among the Nagas, the other largest tribal group. In contrast to the majority non-tribal Meitei group, which resides in the valley districts, Manipur has 34 tribes, the majority of which live in the hill districts.
Assaults with mortar shells
In a statement, the Kuki-Zo organization Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum stated that the “unending attacks are clearly a ploy to derail the political talks between the tribal SoO groups and the
Union government. It demanded an immediate shutdown in Churachandpur and claimed that there was an attack going on in the Khousabung, Kangvai, and Sugnu (in the Chandel district) districts. According to Kuki groups, mortar shells fired from the valley struck their villages, killing one village guard and injuring several others.
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In addition to the deaths of Paokam Kipgen, a resident of Churachandpur, and Pausawndam Vaiphei, a resident of Kangvai, on Thursday, Churachandpur residents Richard Hemkholun, 31, and L.S. Mangboi, 42, also died from wounds they sustained the day before. They were two of the seven people hurt on Wednesday, including two soldiers from the Indian Reserve Battalion. In a new round of violence on Tuesday at Khoirentak in the same region, two men were killed and eight others were injured, bringing the total death toll since August 29 to six.
