Gunfight in IE district, AR trooper hurt in Bpr
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 12 2023:
Another fresh incident of gunfight broke out between Imphal East district police com-mando and suspected Kuki mil-itants near Nongshum village under Lamlai police station on Friday morning.
According to a report, on re-ceiving reliable input of presence of armed cadres of a Kuki armed outfit atop Nongshum village adjacent to Chalon, also under Lamlai PS around Sam Friday, the commando team went to the location but was fired upon.
The commando team retaliat-ed with several rounds.
After a heavy exchange of gun fire for half-an-hour, the militants fled from the scene.
After receiving news of the incident, teams of the Indian Army also arrived at the location.
It is speculated that at least three Kuki militants were injured during the fight.
In another incident, one Shibu Das (32), son of (late) Nitindro Das of Torbung Govindapur in Bish-nupur district, suffered gunshot wounds as unknown persons sus-pected to be armed Kuki militants fired at him on Friday.
According to police, Shibu Das, who is staying in a relief camp at Phougakchao Ikhai Mamang Leikai, went to his abandoned house at Torbung Govindapur around 6 am on Friday to feed his cattle which were left behind due to the communal riots that broke out on May 3.Suddenly, some unknown armed persons fired at him.
Shibu suffered injuries on his leg, the police informed, adding that he was immediately rushed at Kwakta PHC and given treatment.
It may be mentioned that three persons reportedly abducted at gunpoint by suspected Kuki militants on Thursday remain traceless.
The three persons had left relief camps they were staying in to collect paddy from grana-ries in their abandoned houses at Torbung Bangla.
On the other hand, the body of Bishnupur district police com-mando Heisnam Jiten Singh, who was killed during the gunfight at Terakhongsangbi on Thursday, was handed over to his family after conduct of post mortem examination at RIMS morgue on Friday.
Jiten's body was first taken to 1MR where floral tributes were offered, after which the mortal remains were taken to his birthplace Thanga Heisnam Leikai wherein the final rites were conducted.
The source further informed Jiten's abdomen was hit by shrapnel of lathode shell.
There was also a bullet graze wound on his head.
The Bishnupur police commando Gypsy involved in the incident was riddled with multiple holes of automatic rifle and lathode shrapnel.
Meanwhile, three people are suspected to have been shot dead by the commando team during Thursday's gunfight in Terak - hongsangbi area.
In another incident, an Assam Rifles trooper was injured while defusing an improvised explo-sive device (IED) in Torbung village area under Bishnupur district on Friday morning.
According to source, the 1ED went off around 9am as the AR troops on patrolling duty spotted a suspicious material and tried to defuse the same after confirming that it was an IED suspected to have been planted to target the patrol party.
The injured trooper has been admitted to Leimakhong mili-tary hospital.
Defence sources said that the injury was not serious.
The para -military personnel were defusing the IED discovered in the village, which is around 60 km south of capital city Imphal.
The police said that the security forces continued their search operation a day after a Manipur police commando was killed and four others were injured when Kuki militants attacked a police patrol party at Tronglaobi in the same district on Thursday.
Claiming control over the over-all situation in Manipur, officials said that 128 columns of the Army and Assam Rifles continued flag marches in the violence-hit areas in different districts.
The central forces also un-dertook round-the-clock aerial surveillance using drones and military choppers.
The Army's three-pronged domination strategy in Mani-pur is helping the state return to normalcy.
The Army is leaving no stone unturned in monitoring the troubled areas, not only in the hinterland, but also along the India-Myanmar border, a defence release said.
The overall situation in the ethnic violence-hit Manipur improved further on Friday with the authorities relaxing curfew in 11 districts, includ-ing Imphal West and Chura-chandpur, for four to nine hours.
The Army and central paramilitary forces continued their vigil in the sensitive and mixed population areas.
Mobile internet services, however, remain suspend-ed in the state affecting the banking and other important government and non-gov-ernment services.
Manipur witnessed vio-lent clashes, attacks, counter attacks and arson in more than 10 districts during and after the May 3 'Tribal Soli-darity March' called by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe category.
According to the Manipur government's newly appoint-ed Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh the recent ethnic vi-olence has claimed 66 lives.
So far, 284 weapons and 6,700 rounds of ammuni-tion have been recovered after miscreants looted them from the security and police per-sonnel.
After the violence broke out on May 3, the rioters snatched 1,041 weapons and 7,460 rounds of ammunition from the security forces.
The May 3 incidents were preceded by anger and strong opposition to the eviction of Kuki villagers from reserve and protected forest land and destruction of poppy cultiva-tion by the state government leading to a series of agita-tions and tension between the majority Meiteis and the minority Kukis.
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