Imphal: As many as five people were killed in Jiribam district of Manipur on Saturday morning. One person was shot dead in his sleep while four others were killed in subsequent gunfight.
The fresh incident of violence took place in Serou, Moljol, Rashidpur and Nungchappi villages in Jiribam district, adjoining southern Assam.
The situation remains extremely tense as the Jiribam district is the new region of armed hostilities further escalating the ethnic conflict between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki-Zo communities.
A huge contingent of Assam Rifles, other Central Armed Police Force personnel and Manipur police commandos have rushed to all the places where fresh incidents of violence took place since Saturday morning.
A police official said that since Tuesday, the suspected Kuki militants started attacking different areas of the Jiribam district, during which an elderly Meitei resident was killed while the victim was sleeping. He said in “retaliation”, four Kuki militants were gunned down.
Later, Kuki tribal leaders claimed that the slain cadres were not militants; they were “Village Volunteers”.
The Manipur government on Friday ordered the closure of all educational institutions across the state on Saturday, and asked the security forces to remain on high alert and also intensify their counter-insurgency operations, hours after an elderly man was killed while six others sustained injuries as suspected militants lobbed a powerful bomb at the house of former Chief Minister Mairembam Koireng in Bishnupur district.
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