Imphal, April 24 (IANS) At least three people were killed and several others injured in separate firing incidents involving armed groups from the Naga and Kuki tribal communities in Manipur’s Ukhrul district on Friday, officials said.
According to a police official, in one of the incidents near Mullam village in the violence-hit district, security forces recovered two bodies.
Ukhrul district, which shares an inter-state border with Nagaland and an international border with Myanmar, is predominantly inhabited by the Tangkhul Naga community.
The two victims, identified as L. Sitlhou and P. Haolai, were found in camouflage attire with bullet injuries.
A heavy exchange of fire had taken place between armed militants at Mullam village earlier in the morning.
Several houses in the mountainous village were also set ablaze during the violence.
The Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) strongly condemned what it described as a “cowardly armed attack” on peaceful Kuki villages of Mullam and Shongphal in Ukhrul district by an armed Tangkhul Naga group.
In a statement, the KWOHR alleged that the premeditated assault targeted unarmed civilians while they were asleep in their homes.
The attackers reportedly set fire to two houses, injured several villagers, including women and children, and killed two Kuki village volunteers who were guarding the community.
The organisation stated that villagers, exercising what it termed their lawful right to self-defence using licensed hunting weapons, repulsed the attack and neutralised one of the assailants.
“This is not an isolated incident. It forms part of a disturbing and continuing pattern of aggression by armed Tangkhul elements against indigenous Kuki-Zo communities and constitutes a grave violation of the right to life and the right to live in peace,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL), an apex body of the Tangkhul Nagas in Manipur, reported that a Naga Village Guard identified as Horshokmi Jamang (29) was killed by armed Kuki militants in Sinakeithei village in Ukhrul district on Friday.
The body has since been recovered.
The Naga Village Guard (NVG) of Central Command denied allegations that Tangkhul Naga volunteers had attacked Mullam village.
In a statement, the NVG said its personnel stationed between Sinakeithei and Sirarakhong, near Mullam, were on patrol duty following repeated attacks on Sinakeithei village and reports of suspicious movements by Kuki armed cadres operating under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement.
During the patrol, NVG members allegedly came under heavy fire from Kuki armed cadres, resulting in the death of Horshokmi Jamang on the spot and serious injuries to four other volunteers.
The NVG said its personnel retaliated in self-defence before returning to their camps and taking up defensive positions.
Ukhrul district has witnessed a series of violent incidents since February this year, making it one of the most troubled areas in the state in the recent past.
The United Naga Council (UNC), the apex body representing Nagas in Manipur, has already called for a total shutdown across all Naga-inhabited areas of the state starting midnight on April 19.
The shutdown was announced in protest against the killing of two Naga civilians, including a retired Indian Army personnel, in Ukhrul district on April 18, allegedly by suspected Kuki militants.
In a separate statement, the Global Naga Forum (GNF) also condemned the ambush and killing of two Tangkhul Naga civilians along National Highway-2 in Ukhrul district, which it attributed to Kuki militants.
The GNF alleged that there are concerted attempts by certain Kuki groups to politically and geographically isolate the Tangkhul Naga community, portraying the situation as a limited bilateral conflict rather than as part of a broader, longstanding political and territorial dispute between the Naga and Kuki communities across multiple states.
The organisation further urged both the state and Central governments to intervene effectively, not merely through deployment of security forces, whose neutrality it questioned, but through impartial mediation aimed at addressing the root causes of the conflict.
–IANS
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