At least eight persons have been killed and 18 injured, including two security personnel, in Manipur's Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts following continuous gunbattle between Kukis and Meiteis over the last 72 hours, officials said on Thursday.
The Imphal Valley in Manipur, which remained peaceful for most of Friday, witnessed sporadic clashes later in the day as more security forces were rushed in from other states by road and air to calm down a state which had witnessed bloody ethnic rioting over the last 48 hours.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a review meeting in Moreh town of Manipur on Wednesday to take stock of the security situation in the northeastern state which has been witnessing sporadic violence for nearly a month.
Armed vigilante groups have been taking the law into their own hands in parts of Manipur, in the wake of ethnic rioting earlier, thus complicating the peace process. At times, militant groups have joined in the fray, creating an even more volatile cocktail of ethnic tension.
The operation in Nagaland and Manipur was carried out after the army received "credible and specific" intelligence.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday appealed to people to surrender weapons looted from security forces and warned of legal action against anyone found to be in unauthorised and illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
'There are 7,000 guns which are in the hands of the armed militia of the Kuki and Meitei communities.'
Days after a militant group threatened senior journalists of Manipur, unidentified men exploded a grenade at the residence of A Mobi, editor of vernacular daily Sanaleibak and president of the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union, the police said on Sunday.
Over seven months of violence severely hit businesses, schools, colleges and other institutions, besides disrupting transportation and communication networks. It also affected the agrarian sector, considered the mainstay of the state economy.
'Deeply hurt by Modi's conspicuous silence for over a month-and-a-half since the outbreak of violence, people in Manipur came on the roads and crushed their radio sets to express their frustration and anger.' 'The fact that Modi's Mann Ki Baat did not have a single reference to the Manipur violence further accentuated this hurt and anger.'
More than 600 Meiteis have left Mizoram due to fear of tension after a video two tribal women being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur surfaced online recently, a senior police officer said on Thursday.
Business establishments remained closed on Tuesday morning and people were asked by security personnel to remain indoors through the public address system in New Chekon area of Imphal East district, where a mob torched two houses after four armed people, including a former MLA, forced people to shut their shops on Monday.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Tuesday said his government will provide a one-time assistance of Rs 1000 to those living in relief camps because of ethnic rioting in the state.
The top court also took note of the submissions about objectionable public utterances by some groups and individuals.
The spark for the raging violence was lit by demonstrations by tribal groups against a move to grant the majority Meiteis the Scheduled Tribe status, which the residents of the hills had been enjoying for decades since Independence.
All the apprehended are being handed over to National Investigation Agency for further investigation.
Two bombs went of in Imphal on Sunday ahead of the Republic Day celebrations.
'The adversary will always exploit India's anti-national elements.'
The two jawans were among the four injured in the blast in the morning and they succumbed at the Army Hospital at Leimakhong, police said.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has condemned the killing of six people, including three women and three children, by suspected Kuki militants last week. He assured that his government would not rest until the culprits are brought to justice. Search operations are underway for the killers, who had taken the victims hostage in Jiribam district. Singh also expressed gratitude to the CRPF for their swift action in repelling an attack on displaced persons' camps in Jiribam, which led to the deaths of 10 insurgents. The CM has appealed for peace and condemned the violence as a crime against humanity.
Two militants, who arrived on a two-wheeler on Monday evening, lobbed the grenade which exploded just in front of the residence of Minister for Agriculture Parijat Singh at Kangla Park in Imphal, they said.
Drones are a new technology added recently to the weapons used in the violence between the two large ethnic groups -- Meitei and Kuki -- in the northeastern state, which left over 200 people dead since May last year.
'If the Kukis and Meiteis are the warring groups, then we need to find space for a third group which can mediate between the two.'
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said the people of his state, including himself, want the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act but only after mutual understanding with the Centre as national security is their top priority.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is ahead in 20 seats in Manipur, with Chief Minister N Biren Singh leading by a handsome margin of more than 16,000 votes against his nearest Congress rival in Heingang constituency, Election Commission data showed.
A memorandum to visiting Union Home Minister Amit A Shah, stated: 'Paramilitary forces might have been reluctant to prevent Kuki terrorists from attacking innocent civilians,' the news agency IANS reported.
The incident occurred in Churachandpur district close to the Myanmar border.
'Assam Rifles have prevented a large number of genocides and killings.'
'We are not secessionists, we want to coexist with our countrymen but not on the terms that will strip us off our dignity and a right to peaceful existence.'
Newspapers in Manipur failed to hit the stands for the second day on Tuesday in protest against threats from militants. Media sources said a particular militant outfit, which was split into two factions had threatened media houses and journalists if their diktat was not obeyed.
Tension in the state escalated after militants ambushed Manipur Police and other state forces in the last few days that left three policemen dead and 14 others injured last Thursday.
ational Investigation Agency has arrested a key member of Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang for allegedly being a part of conspiracy to carry out the June 4 ambush that killed 18 army men in Manipur, in the first breakthrough in the probe into the incident.
Newspapers on Monday failed to hit the stands in Manipur as media houses and scribes protested against the diktat of militants who have threatened them with dire consequences for disobeying their orders. "We did not produce today's edition of papers in protest against the attack on the house of the editor of popular daily SANALEIBAK and president of the All Manipur Journalists' Union A Mobi at Thongju area in Imphal west district on Saturday night," sources said.
'...We should first look at and acknowledge what we have done to ourselves.' 'To not do so opens us to the accusation of rank hypocrisy and also reduces the stature of our globetrotting peaceniks,' asserts Aakar Patel.
An army officer was killed and a jawan injured in an encounter with militants while five persons were wounded in a grenade explosion in Manipur, the police said on Thursday.
Security forces which tried to quell the mob were forced to use force and fired tear gas shells at the mob at New Checkon in Imphal, they added.
Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang has claimed responsibility for the attack.
'As we enter 2025, it must be acknowledged that there is a convergence of capital, influential people (from business and politics) and technology deciding the destiny of others in the name of pride, patriotism, nationalism, nation building, all of it thinly veiled disguises for personal profit and glory,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
'And (the prime minister does so) without giving any hint of a recognition of the political violence resulting in the ethnic cleansing (of tribals and Kukis) which he simply equates it with atrocities against women in other parts of India.' 'This is not acceptable.'
About 416 Myanmarese soldiers crossed over to India in view of the situation arising out of the fighting between Myanmar's armed ethnic groups and the government forces, and Indian military is 'closely watching' the unfolding developments, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Thursday.
