NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Suspected extremists gunned down a woman, second in three days, in broad day-light in conflict-scarred Manipur on Saturday.
The incident happened around 11 a.m. at Saiton village in the Bishnupur district of Imphal Valley, adjoining the hill district of Churachandpur. Locals said the woman was working with others on a paddy field when they came under fire from a hilly stretch about 100 metres away. She died on the spot.
Some Border Security Force personnel deployed nearby retaliated and the exchange of fire took place for about an hour. Organisation based in Bishnupur said the assailants were Kuki-Zo extremists. “We have launched an investigation into the attack while security measures in the area have been heightened to prevent further violence,” a district police officer said.
The incident followed the killing of a Hmar tribal woman by an armed group in the Jiribam district adjoining Assam on Thursday. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a Kuki-Zo organisation, said Meitei extremists were behind the attack and said the woman, Zosangkim Hmar was shot, captured, and burned to death. Saturday’s killing was believed to be in retaliation of Hmar’s death.
The ethnic violence in Manipur, which broke out on May 3, 2023, between the non-tribal Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo tribals, has so far claimed the lives of more than 250 people and displaced over 60,000 others.
(Manas Dasgupta)
