The situation in minority-dominated Lilong Chingjao area in Manipur's Thoubal district, where four villagers were gunned down by unidentified assailants, remained calm but tense on Tuesday as additional security forces were deployed, an official said.
The government on Monday banned nine Meitei extremist groups and their associate organisations, which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities, and launching fatal attacks on security forces.
It was a muted Independence Day celebrations because of the dawn-to-dusk general strike called by multiple militant outfits and the loss of lives and property of hundreds of people over the last three months in the ethnic strife.
The Union government has decided to crack down on the operations of the Manipur-based Revolutionary Peoples' Front. The National Investigation Agency will soon draw up a comprehensive plan to neutralise the various modules of this group. The Revolutionary Peoples' Front, which enjoys strong links with extremist groups based in Bangladesh, is becoming a menace for the central government.
Markets, banks, business establishments and educational institutions were closed and transport services were suspended.
Insurgent outfit People's Liberation Army on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks on two army establishments in Manipur. The attacks were carried out on Tuesday by a team of the 'special warfare group' of the PLA, the armed wing of the Revolutionary People's Front, said a PLA statement signed by its publicity chief Taohangsu Heiremcha.
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and outlawed Revolutionary People's Front (RPF) in Manipur, have called for general strike and boycott of 'India's Independence Day' on August 15 next to protest 'colonial Indian occupation' of their states.
'My ethnicity has been my biggest struggle in the industry, a setback in getting me work.'
The government on Wednesday said the cadre strength of the Maoist organisations is around 8,500 and they have forged tactical understanding with some insurgent groups in the Northeast for procuring arms and ammunition.
The Naxals are trying to set up organisational bases in the Northeast to forge ties with other insurgent groups to meet their military needs and the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border has emerged as another theatre of Maoist activities, the government said on Wednesday.