Kuki militants torch vehicles; police rescue labourers
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, March 17 2024:
Kuki militants fired several rounds and bombarded Itham Moirangpurel Meetei village in Imphal East district besides torching three vehicles including a 'JCB' excavator on Sunday as three labourers, who briefly went missing in trying to escape the attacks, were successfully rescued by Imphal East district police.
According to sources, after a brief halt, heavily armed Kuki militants descended from the nearby hills of Itham Moirangpurel around 3 pm and started torching three vehicles including a JCB excavator used in sand mining and a Thar four-wheeler.
After setting the vehicles on fire, the militants positioned themselves on the hills bring and shelling the Meetei village.
Subsequently, the villagers abandoned the area to safer places.
On spotting the heavily armed Kuki militants descending from the hill, the excavator operator and the labourers quarrying sand fled for their lives.
However, three labourers went missing even after the militants retreated back to the hills.
As news about the attack spread, village volunteers, who were nearby the area of incident, retaliated by firing at the perpetrators even as more village volunteers rushed in to counter the attack, followed by teams of district police showing up to control the situation.
The firing was then controlled with the arrival of the securi ty forces followed by launch of search for the missing persons, who were finally rescued from the hillside east of Moirangpurel.
Additional security forces have been deployed in the area to thwart attacks by Kuki militants.