Correspondent
IMPHAL, SEP 26: Suspected militants on Saturday stormed a village in Senapati district, killing two villagers and injuring two others as violence linked to the renewed Naga-Kuki conflict escalated in Manipur.
The attack took place around 3pm in Kalengjang, a Naga-inhabited village under Senapati police station adjoining the Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district. It came a few hours after Manipur chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh visited the Naga-dominated district.
The deceased were identified as Rocky Mao of Chowainamei village and Kumar Poumai of Laii Shirafii. The injured, both from the Mao (Naga) community, were Ashiho Sani (49) of Shajouba village and Adani Manio (33) of Makhel village. They were rushed to a hospital at the Senapati district headquarters for treatment. A police team that reached the village retrieved the bodies and transferred them to the morgue of Senapati district hospital for official procedures.
Although no armed group claimed responsibility, villagers suspected cadres of a Kuki militant group.
Local reports said the armed men stormed a house and shot the victims while they were resting. Police were yet to establish the exact circumstances of the incident. More than 60 people have been killed and hundreds of houses destroyed since the renewed Naga-Kuki conflict erupted in February this year, following a brawl in a mixed area of Ukhrul district.
The latest killings came a few hours after the chief minister attended the silver jubilee celebrations of Don Bosco College (Autonomous), Maram, in the Mao area of Senapati district.
The fresh violence occurred on the day the United Naga Council announced the lifting of its indefinite economic blockade that had severely disrupted the supply of essential commodities in the landlocked state.
Manipur chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh strongly condemned the killing of the two villagers, describing it as “a cowardly act of violence against innocent lives.”
In a social media post, he conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
Meanwhile, a reliable report said a group of armed miscreants had attacked Sojamphai, a Kuki village in Kangpokpi district, and set several houses on fire.