One killed, one hurt in attacks after bunkers dismantled
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 10 2023:
A village volunteer was killed and another in-jured in coordinated armed attacks carried out by sus-pected Kuki militants in a 7-km long stretch from Kangchup Chingkhong to Haraothel on Sunday night.
The slain village volunteer has been identified as Saik-horn Sanjit alias Subol (28) son of Rocket of Uripok Achom Leikai, which is about 25 km away from the spot of the clash in Imphal West district.
He was killed in one of the attacks in Singda area.
The injured volunteer has been evacuated to RIMS hospital.
Earlier officials had said that a policeman had died in the violence but it was later clarified that the victim was a civilian, who was carrying a .303 rifle, believed to have been stolen from the police armoury.
Tension prevailed in Imphal city following the incident and paramilitary forces were deployed in the affected area.
Shops and other business es-tablishments remained shut.
Assam Rifles manages a buffer zone between the two villages.
Officials did not rule out the possibility of more casualties from both sides and said the exact picture can be ascer-tained only after the firing stops.
Reports from the spot said that a joint team of police com-mandos, BSF and 7 Bn Manipur Rifles personnel on dismantled bunkers set up in Singda area by Meetei villagers as part of the government's initiative on Sunday around 4.30 am.
Hours after dismantling the bunkers, Kuki militants launched at-tacks from around 9 pm from three sides of Geljang, Singda Water Treatment Plant and Singda Mamang Leikai, which were under their control.
There was a brief lull be-tween 3 am and 6 am before the sounds of indiscriminate firing from Phayeng and Sing-da villages resumed.
The village volunteers also retaliated resulting in intense gunfight.
They also managed to drive out the Kuki militants from Geljang village during the shootout that continued inter-mittently till 10 am Monday.
After the village volunteers retreated, they found Sanjit missing.
A search and res-cue operation was launched by state and central forces and the team found Sanjit's body near Geljang village.
The joint security forces disman-tled several bunkers set up by Kuki militants in the area, and retrieved the body.
San-jiit's bullet riddled body was recovered along with one Ml rifle, a press note by Police Control Room conveyed.
Large number of public gathered at Kangchup Bazar, where floral tributes were paid to Sanjit.
Similar tributes were also paid to his mortal remains all the way from Kangchup Chingkhong to RIMS morgue, where his body was kept for post mortem.
Local villagers told the me-dia that the security forces dismantled the bunkers set up by the Meetei villagers to defend themselves but left the bunkers of Kuki militants in-tact on Sunday morning.
The militants took advantage of the situation and carried out the coordinated attack, the villagers said while decrying the measures taken up by se-curity forces and terming it as a biased attitude.
In the meantime, residents of Kharam Thadoi Korn village fled their homes during the gunfight and took refuge in Meetei village Kadangband.
They returned home on Mon-day afternoon safely.
On the other-hand, com-bined teams of state police and central forces continued to conduct search operations in the vulnerable and fringe areas of both the hill and valley districts.
According to Police Control Room, a total of ten bunkers were dismantled by combined teams.
It also informed that firings were reported between armed miscreants at Dampi Range, Khoijumantabi, Langza, K Songnung, Bethel, Apunlok and Koutruk village areas on the intervening night of Sun-day and Monday.
About 130 nakas/check - points were installed in dif-ferent areas of both the hill and valley districts, while 397 people were detained in connection with violations on Monday.
The Control Room reiter-ated its appeal to the public to extend all possible help in bringing normalcy in the state, to clarify any rumour by dialling rumour free number - 9233522822, and to return and deposit arms, ammunition and explosives to the police or security forces immediately.
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