GUWAHATI/IMPHAL
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Seven security personnel were injured during a gunfight with members of an armed group at Chavanphat village close to the India-Myanmar border near Moreh in Manipur on Tuesday morning.
Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said the unidentified gunmen could be Myanmar-based “mercenaries” belonging to the Kuki National Army (Burma).
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A police official in Tengnoupal, the affected district, said four of the injured security personnel are Manipur police commandos and three are from the Border Security Force. Five of them were airlifted to the State’s capital, Imphal, and admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences.
The exchange of fire started after local women tried to secure the release of two men who were picked up by the police allegedly without citing any reason. The police official said the extremists fired first.
The Chief Minister, who visited the injured security personnel at the hospital, said reinforcements had been sent to Moreh and a joint search operation by State and Central forces was being carried out to catch the extremists.
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“We suspect the involvement of foreign mercenaries from Myanmar in the incident. The involvement of KNA (B) is highly possible,” he said.
Appealing for calm, Mr. Singh said necessary measures would be taken to counter terrorist activities. “It is our commitment to the people of the State and India that we will not succumb to any threat and aggression,” he told presspersons.
Ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities broke out on May 3, 2023, after a tribal solidarity march, leaving some 200 people dead and 60,000 displaced. Intermittent gunfights between the security forces and suspected extremists have kept Moreh, a border trade centre, on the boil since the last week of December.
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Owning responsibility
Tuesday’s gunfight came less than 24 hours after unidentified gunmen killed four civilians in Thoubal district’s Lilong, an area dominated by the Meitei Muslims, also called Pangals. At least 14 others were injured in the incident.
The Lilong killings almost coincided with an attack by extremists on a temporary police commando camp in the Kondong Lairembi temple complex in Moreh. No one was injured in the attack.
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Meanwhile, the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), claimed responsibility for the Lilong incident on January 1.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, an RPF spokesperson said the PLA members tried to take one Md Hassan away for failing to desist from drug trafficking. He said the PLA members were forced to open fire in self-defence after some of the villagers attacked them with guns.
The RPF apologised to the villagers, who it claimed ignored the warning shots fired in the air.