Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey and CM N Biren Singh at the Marty's Day programme at Imphal, on Tuesday.
Credit: Manipur government.
Guwahati: At least two persons were killed and three others were injured in a fresh gunfight among armed miscreants in a village bordering Imphal West and Kangpokpi district in conflict-hit Manipur on Tuesday.
The firing started in Koutruk village at around 2 pm following which two persons were found dead, sources said. Police said the injured were rushed to a hospital in Imphal.
The victims belonged to the Meitei community, said the source.
Sources in a Kuki organisation said that firing took place after Meitei "armed miscreants intruded" into Kuki-dominated areas "violating the buffer zone" and launched an attack. The "village volunteers" (Kuki armed persons) retaliated, leading to the death of the two.
The "buffer zone" was created by the central security forces between the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley and the Kuki-dominated hill districts in order to prevent fresh escalation of the violence. Imphal West is in the Valley whereas Kangpokpi is a Kuki-dominated district. At least two Manipur police commandos were killed at Moreh, a village in Kangpokpi district, bordering Myanmar on January 17. Five more Meitei persons were killed the next day in two separate incidents in villages along Bishnupur-Churachandpur and Imphal West-Kangpokpi district.
More than 200 people have been killed and over 50,000 others have been displaced due to the violence between Meiteis and the Kukis since May last year.