Correspondent
IMPHAL, JUL 3: Atleast 11 houses in a Naga village in Manipur’s Noney district were burnt down on Friday, marking escalation of the Naga-Kuki conflict in troubled-Manipur.
There were no reports of human casualty in the attack that came barely a day after a Kuki village was attacked and houses torched in the same district on Thursday.
Reports said that a group of miscreants armed with sophisticated weapons attacked Sianpat, a Naga village under Nungba police station of Noney district.
The village was attacked this afternoon, around 4pm and at least 11 houses were burnt down, the reports said. The attack on the Naga village came barely a day after a predawn attack on a Kuki village in the same district allegedly a group of miscreants armed with sophisticated weapons.
Laikot, a Kuki village under Khoupum police station of Noney district was attacked by the miscreants early on Thursday morning.
After village volunteers guarding the village were outgunned in after a brief exchange of fire, the attackers torched almost all the houses. The attacks and burning down of the houses in Naga-dominated Noney district comes close to similar attacks and arson at Naga and Kuki villages in Kamjong, another Naga-dominated hill district bordering Myanmar. Around 30 houses were set ablaze in fresh violence near the India-Myanmar border on July 1, police and local sources had said.
According to the police, around 15 abandoned houses at Phaimol, a Kuki village located near Border Pillar No. 113 were set afire on the day, around 12.30 pm.
A few hours later, at around 2:45 pm, a group of armed miscreants set fire to Sangkhalok, a Tangkhul village near Border Pillar No. 101. Several small thatched houses occupied by Myanmar refugees and around seven Tangkhul houses were destroyed, while some partially damaged houses were saved. The violence also spread to Huimine Thana, another Tangkhul-inhabited village between Shangkhalok and Phaikoh, where seven houses were reportedly reduced to ashes.