Six people, including one civilian, were killed as fresh
violence broke out between two warring ethnic communities in the northeast
Indian state of Manipur on Saturday, authorities said.
The majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis have
clashed sporadically since last year after a court ordered the state government
to consider extending special economic benefits and quotas in government jobs
and education enjoyed by the Kukis to the Meiteis as well. More than 225 people
have been killed and some 60,000 have been displaced. Saturday's gunfire
incident represents the greatest number of casualties for a single day in the
latest spurt of violence that began a week ago. The attacks earlier this week
have also seen the use of drones to drop explosive devices in what authorities
have called a significant escalation. Police say they suspect that the drones
were used by Kuki militants - a claim denied by Kuki groups. "Fighting has
been going on between armed groups of both the communities since the
morning," said Krishna Kumar, deputy commissioner of the state's Jiribam
district where the clash occurred. According to Indian media reports, the
civilian was shot dead in his sleep. "He was fired upon in his room
itself," Kumar told Reuters, adding that security forces had been deployed
to control the situation.
Manipur has ordered all schools in the state to remain shut
on Saturday. A state of 3.2 million people, Manipur has been divided into two
ethnic enclaves since the conflict began in May 2023 - a valley controlled by
the Meiteis and the Kuki-dominated hills. The areas are separated by a stretch
of no-man's land monitored by federal paramilitary forces. On September 1, two
people were killed and several injured in the valley district of Imphal
West. Later in the week, a 78-year-old man was killed and six were injured
when a "long-range rocket" was deployed by militants and fell on the
house of a former chief minister in the valley's Bishnupur district, police
said on Friday.