Imphal:

In a fresh incident of arson in Manipur, a primary health centre (PHC) was torched by unidentified people in Jiribam district on Thursday, officials said. The incident took place in Borobekra area, less than 200 metres from a police outpost, early in the morning, they said. No injuries were reported as nobody was inside the PHC at the time of the incident. Security forces have rushed to the spot.

The police are yet to give a statement on the incident.

Five people were killed in fresh violence in Jiribam on September 7.

The Jiri Apunba Lup in a statement today alleged massive attacks have been carried out with heavy gunfire and powerful bombs targeting some Meitei villages, namely Ningthem Khunou, Mongbung, and villages in Borobekra sub-division in Jiribam.

“Yesterday, at 7 pm, gunfire and bombing attacks were launched on Mongbung Meitei village by a large number of Kuki terrorists…” the Jiri Apunba Lup alleged, adding the security forces should do more to prevent such attacks.

Jiribam is where Meitei and Hmar leaders met for peace talks last month, along with security forces commanders. They had given a joint statement agreeing to work for peace. Churachandpur-based Kuki groups, however, had objected to the peace talks, alleging the peace talk parties did not represent their interests and met only at Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s bidding.

The Hmar Inpui, however, declared it would not recognise the peace initiative and warned the individuals who participated in the meeting to “stop their blind and selfish efforts”. The Hmar Inpui, referring to Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who belongs to the Meitei community, had said these leaders appeared to be bowing to the “whims and fancies of a divisive and communal government under the leadership of Biren Singh…”

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands left homeless in ethnic violence between the Meitei community dominant in the valley and the Kuki tribes dominant in the hill districts of southern Manipur and some other areas since May 2023.

Ethnically-diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by violence for over a year since May 2023, saw major clashes in June.

Thousands had to leave their homes and relocate to relief camps due to incidents of arson by both sides. A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan was also killed in an ambush by suspected Kuki insurgents during patrolling by security forces in mid-July.

With inputs from PTI

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

The Manipur Police said they have identified the bodies of five people found in Jiribam district following a fierce gunfight with “suspected Kuki insurgents” on Friday.

Three of the bodies have now been confirmed as Kuki insurgents from Churachandpur district; the fourth has been identified as a Kuki volunteer from Jiribam; the fifth has been identified as a member of the Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF(P), the police said in a statement on Sunday.

The three Kuki insurgents were members of the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA), the police said, adding they suspect the three Kuki insurgents may have come from the hill district Churachandpur in southern Manipur, 230 km from Jiribam.

“… It seems they had traversed a long distance to Jiribam to execute these subversive activities,” the police said.

The UNLF is the oldest Meitei insurgent group, which later broke up into two factions; the Pambei faction signed a tripartite peace agreement with the Centre and the state government in November 2023.

The KLA has two factions, one each with the two umbrella Kuki-Zo groups that have signed the controversial tripatriate Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the state government and the Centre. Some 24-odd Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under the two umbrella organisations called the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF). Sources said the leaders of the KLA factions are from the Khongsai clan.

The police said the three Kuki insurgents and the volunteer “initiated the attack” in Jiribam, killing a 63-year-old man from the Meitei community identified as Yurembam Kulendra Singha. His body was found on a bed, indicating he was shot while sleeping, his family told reporters on Saturday.

A police team that rushed to the site of the attack was fired at; the team retaliated and took control of the situation, the police said.

“A total of five bodies were found at the firing incident site…” the police said in the statement posted on X.

According to the police, the three KLA insurgents were Seiminlen Khongsai, Haogoulen Doungel, and Nehboithang Haokip. The volunteer who was killed was Lhunkhohao Haokip.

The UNLF(P) member was Baspatimayum Lakhi Kumar Sharma. He was guarding a village as a volunteer when he came under attack, his wife, holding her six-month-old baby, told local media.

In c/w the case of 06.09.2024, suspected Kuki militants had attacked Nungchappi village under Jiribam District resulting in death of 01 (one) senior citizen civilian identified as Yurembam Kulendra Singha (63) yrs S/O. (L) Y. Ramohon Singha of Rangar Part-I, Cachar, Assam, who…

— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) September 8, 2024

Jiribam is where Meitei and Hmar leaders met for peace talks last month, along with security forces commanders. They had given a joint statement agreeing to work for peace. Churachandpur-based Kuki groups, however, had objected to the peace talks, alleging the peace talk parties did not represent their interests and met only at Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s bidding.

The Hmar Inpui later declared it would not recognise the peace initiative and warned the individuals who participated in the meeting to “stop their blind and selfish efforts”. The Hmar Inpui had said these leaders appeared to be bowing to the “whims and fancies of a divisive and communal government under the leadership of Biren Singh…”

After violence erupted in Jiribam in June, sources had told NDTV the state government had written three times in December 2023 and January this year to the Director General of Police (DGP) asking to step up security and respond to any threat in the district bordering Assam.

“It has been reported that about 200 armed Kuki-Zo militants have moved from Churachandpur and reached Phaitol village, Old and New Kaiphundai area of Tamenglong district bordering Jiribam district,” the state government wrote to the DGP on January 15.

Sources had said though the Jiribam attacks in June came nearly six months after the government sent the first letter, the insurgents would have been waiting for the “right time” to strike.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Imphal/New Delhi:

Six people were killed in fresh violence this morning in Manipur’s Jiribam district, the police said. Suspected Kuki insurgents attacked Nungchappi village in the district 229 km from the state capital Imphal, killing a 63-year-old man identified as Yurembam Kulendra Singha. The attack came a day after an elderly man from the valley-dominant Meitei community, who was offering prayers, was killed in a rocket-propelled bomb attack by Kuki insurgents in Manipur’s Moirang town, according to the police.

The five others were killed in a gunfight between armed groups of the Meitei community and the hill-dominant Kuki tribes, sources said. These groups call themselves “village defence volunteers”.

The Jiribam Superintendent of Police (SP) and a police team rushed to the area, but were fired at, the police said in the statement, adding the team “retaliated strongly and controlled the firing.”

In Imphal, the Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) K Kabib today told reporters, “… Yesterday, some Kuki militants attacked and fired at some fringe areas including Bishnupur and Churachandpur border. In response to that, combined teams of the security forces conducted combing operations. They have destroyed two bunkers which was previously occupied by militants. After that, there was a long-range rocket fire from the hills by Kuki militants at Moirang, in which one senior citizen was killed and six others were injured.”

“Today morning, the Kuki militants attacked a village in Jiribam, killing a senior citizen. The militants kept firing and ran away. Some village volunteers retaliated, and when the Jiribam police reached the area, they were fired at, after which the police also fired back,” Mr Kabib said.

Jiribam is where Meitei and Hmar leaders met for peace talks last month, along with security forces commanders. They had given a joint statement agreeing to work for peace. Churachandpur-based Kuki groups, however, had objected to the peace talks, alleging the peace talk parties did not represent their interests and met only at Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s bidding.

The Hmar Inpui, however, declared it would not recognise the peace initiative and warned the individuals who participated in the meeting to “stop their blind and selfish efforts”. The Hmar Inpui had said these leaders appeared to be bowing to the “whims and fancies of a divisive and communal government under the leadership of Biren Singh…”

Anti-Drone System, Chopper Patrol

An anti-drone system has been deployed, the police said, nearly a week after suspected Kuki insurgents attacked villages in Imphal West district with weaponised drones – the first time suspected insurgents used drone attacks on Indian soil.

The police said that in a multi-pronged approach, army helicopters are keeping an eye on the ground, while combing operations in “suspected areas” in both the hills and the valley are going on. A team is also monitoring social media posts to catch instigators of violence, the police said.

The security forces have destroyed several bunkers in the foothills, the police said.

On Friday evening, crowds tried to loot weapons from the 2nd and 7th Manipur Rifles camps in the state capital Imphal, but they were prevented from doing so by the security forces, who fired blank rounds and tear gas, the police said. Two policemen were injured in firing by some people from the crowd, the police said. The two injured personnel have been identified as inspector Kh Henery, and constable Issac Gangmei. Both are in hospital.

Protesters in Imphal valley told reporters they were disappointed with the state and the central government over the drone and rocket attacks, and civilians were left with no choice but to defend themselves.

“Who in their right mind would want to loot weapons? People are being killed in their homes, despite the presence of over 50,000 central force personnel. A Meitei woman was shot by a sniper. An elderly man was killed in a rocket attack,” Imphal resident M Nirmala Devi, who came out to protest on Friday evening, told NDTV.

Imphal/New Delhi:

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldier who was killed in action in an attack by “suspected Kuki insurgents” on Sunday was scheduled to go home in Bihar on Monday, a policeman who shared a barrack with the CRPF soldier has said.

The policeman, in a video taken inside the barrack, said the 43-year-old CRPF soldier Ajoy Kumar Jha slept on a bed next to his. He was a resident of Madhubani in Bihar.

“This is his bed, just next to mine. He was the CRPF soldier who was killed in action,” the policeman said, pointing the camera on a hard bed on which a red luggage was kept. “He had packed his clothes. He was happy he would be going home tomorrow,” the policeman said.

“He had taken a pass to go home. See his bag and belongings, all neatly packed. It is very sad. I can’t believe he is no more. He was behind me when he was hit by the bullet,” the policeman said, referring to a “pass”, or approved paperwork for leave.

The Manipur Police in a statement said a joint patrol of the police and the CRPF in Jiribam district “was fired upon heavily with sophisticated weapons by suspected armed Kuki militants from multiple locations.”

The CRPF soldier was killed in the firing, while two Manipur Police personnel were injured. The two are being treated at a Jiribam hospital and are out of danger, the police said.

The police said reinforcements have arrived and are taking part in the combing operations. “The police department is monitoring the situation constantly and senior officers are in the district to supervise the security arrangement and also the ongoing combing operations,” the police said.

The CRPF in a post in Hindi on X said the paramilitary force “salutes our brave soldier’s indomitable courage, valour and devotion to the motherland… We stand with the family of our brave man.”

दिनांक 14 जुलाई 2024 को मणिपुर के जिरिबाम में 20 बटालियन #CRPF एवं राज्य पुलिस की संयुक्त पार्टी पर उग्रवादियों द्वारा घात लगाकर किए गए हमले में बहादुर कॉन्स्टेबल ड्राईवर अजय कुमार झा ने कर्तव्य की बलिवेदी पर अपने प्राणों की आहुति दी। #सीआरपीएफ अपने शूरवीर के अदम्य साहस, शौर्य… pic.twitter.com/mZMxO8jPNL

— CRPF (@crpfindia) July 14, 2024

Before today’s ambush by the suspected Kuki insurgents, tension in Jiribam had been high in recent weeks following fighting between the Meitei community and the Hmar tribes.

The district didn’t see violence for over a year since Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes began in May 2023; however, clashes erupted in Jiribam last month, forcing over a thousand people from both the communities to live in relief camps, some in neighbouring Assam.

The ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the nearly two dozen tribes that share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administrative carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Guwahati:

The Assam Police have started a door-to-door survey to record the number of internally displaced people living in Cachar district, bordering Manipur’s Jiribam.

The district in Manipur had seen violence between the Meitei community and the Hmar tribe after two people from both communities were found murdered in May and this month. Both suspected each other’s hand in the case, which led to arson by Meitei protesters, followed by attacks by heavily armed Hmar insurgents who came by boat to burn Meitei homes in Jiribam.

Nearly 1,700 people from both communities have taken shelter in southern Assam’s Cachar district, just across the state border.

Sources said the Assam government wants to avoid any spillover effect of the violence in Jiribam, a key thoroughfare in Manipur via which the National Highway 37 passes.

“This is Assam, not Manipur. Here, we have a history of tackling militancy and we won’t spare anyone if found involved in illegal activities,” Assam Inspector General (Law and Order) Prasanta Kumar Bhuiyan said.

Mr Bhuiyan said the survey to identify people from Manipur in Cachar started on Sunday. The district is estimated to have sheltered 1,700 internally displaced people from Manipur.

The top cop met Assam Rifles officers in Cachar’s Lakhipur on Monday, where they discussed law and order issues along the inter-state border.

Cachar Deputy Commissioner Rohan Kumar Jha and Superintendent of Police Numal Mahatta also met Jiribam’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Monoranjan Thokchom and Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Thomas Thokchom on Monday.

Cachar district shares a 132-km long boundary with Manipur. A large part of it is riverine.