IMPHAL (The Thursday Times) — Gunmen ambushed two vehicles on the Imphal-Ukhrul highway in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur on Friday, killing four Naga civilians, including a mother and her son, police said.
The attack took place in the New Heaven area on National Highway 202 as the victims were travelling from Ukhrul to Imphal in two vehicles, a car and a pick-up. “Two men and two women, who were travelling in the two cars, died on the spot. Bullet marks were seen on the windshields of the two vehicles,” a senior police officer said.
Local reports identified the dead as Kapangkhui RS and Haoleila RS, a mother and son from Shangshak village, and Khanmila Keishing and August Ngalung, siblings from Tashar village. Both villages are in Ukhrul district. Police said they had begun an investigation, and no group has said it carried out the attack.
The site lies about 30 to 35 kilometres from Ukhrul town, just short of Litan. Vehicles on the highway are given security escorts between Litan and Mahadev, but the stretch beyond Litan towards Ukhrul has seen several deadly attacks this year.
Two days of killings
The ambush came a day after a 42-year-old Kuki woman was shot dead and two men were wounded in a gunfight between rival groups near Taphou Kuki village in Kangpokpi district. Ukhrul is a Naga-majority district and Kangpokpi a Kuki-majority one. The opposition Congress party in the state condemned both killings and questioned the government’s response.
At least 50 people have been killed in clashes between Kuki and Naga groups in the hill districts since February, according to reports. The wider conflict that broke out in May 2023 between the valley-based Meitei and the hill-based Kuki communities has killed at least 306 people, left 49 missing, and driven thousands from their homes.
Earlier this week, police seized a 10-foot rocket and Chinese-made mortars in Churachandpur district. On Friday, the federal government gave the commission investigating the 2023 violence a seventh extension, asking it to report by May 20, 2027.
