The conflict in Manipur, in north-eastern India, which has lasted more than three years, shows no sign of ending. At least 40 people have been killed in violence in the state in the past month. Two more were killed in an armed attack on the Kangpokpi-Imphal border on Monday.
In protest at the killings, angry residents placed the bodies in front of the gate of the Manipur chief minister’s residence and staged a fierce protest.
The death toll from three years of bloody conflict between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur stands at about 260. The situation has escalated sharply again in recent days. Since the start of this year, at least 50 people have died in conflict between Kukis and Nagas, at least 40 of them in the past month alone.
Although Manipur chief minister Y Khemchand Singh has voiced deep concern and promised adequate security, the violence has not stopped; it is spreading to new areas every day.
On the 9th and 10th of the month, at least nine people died in clashes in Kamjong, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul districts. On Saturday, a Kuki man was shot dead and four people were injured in the Chassad area of Kamjong district, on the Myanmar border. At least 28 houses in villages of the district were then set on fire.
On Sunday night, clashes broke out between the two communities after miscreants threw stones during a concert in Khangabok village in Thoubal district. One man, Laishram Rakesh, was killed and several were injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire, and a number of houses and vehicles were burnt. With law and order deteriorating, strict restrictions and a curfew have been imposed in Thoubal and extra security forces deployed.
On Monday morning, two people were killed and three injured in an attack by armed miscreants while collecting firewood in the Nongshum and Khongbal Thangkhul forest on the border of Imphal East and Kangpokpi districts. After the killings, angry local residents took the bodies straight to the gate of the chief minister’s residence to protest. Security at the residence has since been tightened.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report