IMPHAL (The Thursday Times) — Manipur’s government on Saturday ordered security posts across the state to strengthen cover in their areas and said combing operations would continue, a day after four Naga civilians were shot dead in an ambush on a highway in Ukhrul district.
The decisions were taken at a security review chaired by Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh in Imphal, attended by Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam and senior officers of the state police and the central security forces. Khemchand said the meeting was called after “the unfortunate incidents at Taphou Kuki village in Kangpokpi district and yesterday’s ambush at New Heaven in Ukhrul district”.
“It was decided that combing operations will continue to nab the culprits involved in various crimes,” he said. Each security post, he added, would have to strengthen cover in its area of deployment, and the meeting discussed further measures for vulnerable areas.
The four civilians, among them a woman and her son, were killed on Friday when armed men ambushed two vehicles on National Highway 202 (read our report). A day earlier, a Kuki woman was killed and two Kuki men were wounded in a shooting in Kangpokpi district (read more). Ukhrul is mainly Naga and Kangpokpi mainly Kuki. The state government has said the attackers in Ukhrul were unidentified gunmen.
The Tangkhul Naga Long, the apex body of the Tangkhul Nagas, has given the central and state governments three days to hand the killings to the National Investigation Agency and remove Kuki armed groups from Naga areas (read more). It says Nagas have “lost complete faith” in the central forces on the stretch and wants them withdrawn, and the victims’ families have refused to claim the bodies until their demands are met.
Nine killed on one stretch
Ram Muivah, a Naga legislator, told the chief minister in a letter that nine people had been “gunned down in as many months” on a stretch of less than 15 km between Mahadev and New Heaven. “Enough is enough,” he wrote.
Muivah asked for combing operations in villages along the road, round-the-clock security on the highway, and the return of more than 100 Ukhrul police personnel and over 800 Manipur Rifles personnel who, he said, are deployed outside the district.
Deputy Chief Minister Losii Dikho, a senior Naga leader, appealed for dialogue. “The recent loss of innocent lives along the National Highway and within our communities has left deep wounds that violence and retaliation can never heal,” he said.
Separately, the Assam Rifles arrested a 48-year-old Myanmar national, identified as Soetunou, near border pillar 75 in Tengnoupal district, police said on Saturday. Troops had acted on information that three people were carrying weapons across the border, and the other two escaped back into Myanmar, police said. Three AK-47 rifles, 172 rounds of ammunition, three grenades, and two telescopic sights were seized.
More than 300 companies of central armed police are deployed in Manipur alongside the army and the state police. Ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities since May 2023 has killed more than 260 people and displaced tens of thousands.
RSS chief to visit
Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, will visit Manipur from November 18 to 20, the RSS said on Saturday. It will be his second trip to the state since the violence began, after a visit in November last year in which he met representatives from both the valley and the hills.
The RSS described the tour as organisational, saying Bhagwat would review its programmes in the state, including events marking its centenary, and meet its volunteers.
