Security personnel in Manipur.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Guwahati: Three BSF personnel were injured in firing by "armed miscreants" in Meitei-dominated Thoubal district in conflict-hit Manipur on Wednesday night as the anger against the killing of two police commandos at Moreh, allegedly by Kuki militants, spilled onto the streets in Imphal Valley.
As the mob belonging to the Metiei community tried to storm the Thoubal district police headquarters, security forces tried to stop them. "Armed miscreants from among the mob fired live rounds. As a result, three personnel from BSF sustained bullet injuries namely constable Gourav Kumar, ASI Sobram Singh and ASI Ramji," Manipur police said in a social media post.
The post further said that an irate mob targeted the 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion in Khangabok in Thoubal before they tried to storm the district police headquarters.
Sources said the mob was alleging the failure of the security forces to maintain law and order at Moreh, a Kuki-dominated town in Kangpokpi district near Myanmar border, where two Manipur police commandos were killed by suspected Kuki insurgents on Wednesday morning. Six other police personnel were also injured in the attack.
Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a forum of Kuki organisations, in the evening claimed that at least 11 houses belonging to Kuki residents, two schools and a church were burnt down by armed miscreants belonging to the Meitei community, after the attack.
The Co-Ordination Committee on Manipur Unity (COCOMI), a forum of Meitei organisations, in a statement on Wednesday evening claimed that Myanmar's Chin Kuki militants were involved in the attack on Manipur police. "The incident has brought to light a distressing lapse in the coordination between the state and central security forces," it said.
Troubled Moreh
Manipur has remained on the boil since the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki communities broke out in May last year. Nearly 200 people have been killed and over 60,000 others have been displaced in the violence. Moreh witnessed sporadic exchange of fire several times between Manipur police commandos and the armed Kuki men since the SDPO's killing.
The Manipur government claims involvement of Kuki insurgents in the gunfight but Kuki groups say the "village volunteers" are engaged in the fight in order to defend the Kukis in and around Moreh from "attacks" by the Manipur police commandos.