Kuki militants torch 4 Meitei houses, one Naga house
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 19 2023:
Heavily armed Kukis burnt down five houses including one belonging to a Naga family at Leimakhong Chingmang last night.
The Naga house belonged to one Akhon Abonmei, a Liangmai woman.
The other four houses belonged to Meitei families.
The armed Kukis also burnt down a granary along with the five houses.
One villager said that Leimakhong Chingmang comes under Ward No 7 of Khurkhul Gram Panchayat.
The heavily armed Kukis, after firing indiscriminately at the village, started burning down houses at around 11.30 pm.
There are around 40 houses at Leimakhong Chingmang and armed Kukis set some of these houses on fire for the first time on May 29 .
The armed Kukis attacked the same village for the second time on June 1 and again on June 2 and they burnt down several more houses, he said.
Heavily armed Kukis attacked Leimakhong Ching- mang for the fourth time yesterday and burnt down five houses including a granary.
Around 10 houses are still standing at Leimakhong and people are apprehensive that armed Kukis would soon burn down these houses too even though security forces (CRPF) are present in the area, said the villager.
Notably, all the Meitei families of Leimakhong Chingmang have already abandoned their houses and taken refuge at safer places.
However Akhon Abon-mei was present inside her house when the armed Kukis attacked the village.
Leimakhong Chingmang is a part of Imphal West district and the number of Kukis in the area was very little.
But their population multiplied within a very short period and now they are the majority community in the area, said the villager.
Moreover, Kuki militants have constructed a number of bunkers at Leimakhong Chingmang and they are training their weapons at Meitei houses, he said.
The army said that one of their personnel sustained injuries due to firing by Meitei volunteers.
The Meitei volunteers were only retaliating to the Kuki militants' attack.
If any army personnel had sustained injuries, the army personnel must have joined the Kuki militants in firing at Meitei houses, the villager added.