Daijiworld Media Network - Imphal
Imphal, Nov 13: Four people, including two women, were killed in a suspected ambush allegedly carried out by Kuki militants along the Imphal-Dimapur National Highway (NH-2) in Manipur’s Ukhrul district on Friday afternoon, police said.
The incident reportedly occurred at New Haven, under the jurisdiction of Litan Police Station in Ukhrul district, which shares an unfenced international border with Myanmar and an inter-state border with Nagaland.
Security forces, led by senior police officials, rushed to the spot, while personnel from Litan Police Station launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the suspected ambush.
According to local media reports, the victims belonged to the Naga community. A police official in Imphal, quoting local residents, said two men and two women travelling in two separate cars were killed on the spot when armed militants opened fire on them.
Bullet marks were found on the windshields of both vehicles, the official said. Further details of the incident are awaited.
Meanwhile, normal life was partially disrupted in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on Friday as shops, markets and business establishments remained closed following a bandh called by a tribal organisation to protest the killing of a Kuki woman in a gunfight between two rival groups on Thursday.
Most vehicles, including passenger buses and auto-rickshaws, remained off the roads, causing considerable inconvenience to commuters.
The Kangpokpi-based Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU) called a 48-hour shutdown from midnight on November 12 following the gunfight near Taphou Kuki village on Thursday. Educational institutions, medical facilities and emergency services were exempted from the bandh.
The COTU demanded the withdrawal of all central and state security forces, particularly those operating under the command of the Senapati district Superintendent of Police (SP), from the mountainous areas of Kangpokpi district.
A 42-year-old Kuki woman, identified as Kimneineng Chongloi, was shot dead, while two others sustained injuries during a gun battle between rival armed groups near Taphou Kuki village in Kangpokpi district and Kailengjang in neighbouring Senapati district on Thursday.
Kuki organisations alleged that cadres of the NSCN-IM and ZUF-K killed the woman while she was working in a paddy field.
At least 50 people have been killed in clashes between Kuki and Naga groups in the hill districts of Manipur since February this year.