Hours before Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi reached Manipur’s Jiribam district, his third visit to the strife-torn State since the violence began, firing was reported near Phaitol village along the border of Jiribam and Tamenglong districts.
Security forces responded to the firing and apprehended two individuals. They seized a cache of locally made arms, ammunition and explosives in the combing operations.
Following the firing early on Monday, tensions began escalating in the district once again, with security sources saying miscreants tried to torch three thatched homes of Kuki-Zo people near Phaitol and one home belonging to a person from the Meitei community in Lalpani, 6km south of Jiribam town. Neither of the houses were occupied, the police said.
The incident comes within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling the Parliament that efforts were on to bring back peace in Manipur, a State where, Mr. Modi said, “social tensions” were deep-rooted.
Following the firing, security forces arrested two Kuki-Zo residents of Phaitol, Lunjakap and Kaplal, who locals identified as village volunteers. The forces faced a blockade by women of the village who protested against the arrests, showed videos circulating on social media. The forces faced another blockade by Meitei women, who insisted on checking their vehicles. Security sources said the attempts were dealt with swiftly, without using force.
After the combing operations, officials said the Assam Rifles recovered one locally-made rifle, two single-barrel rifles, a 12 bore rifle (local-made), two pistols, two pistol magazines, seven bombs, five handmade explosive devices and five detonators. The forces seized dozens of rounds of live ammunition, vials of gunpowder, safety fuse wires, a host of communication devices and clothing items that included combat uniforms, boots and camouflage helmets.
Police officials told The Hindu that the firing was reported around 3 a.m. near a police outpost close to Phaitol village, which was undergoing repair and construction work following an attack in the previous weeks. “First, there was a report of a fire at the location of this police outpost. When the Manipur Police reached the spot with fire tenders, the police party was fired upon from the hilltop across the road,” one of them said.
The Superintendent of Police, Jiribam, M. Pradip Singh, told The Hindu, “The firing came from the direction of adjoining Tamenglong district. The Manipur Police returned the fire and a successful operation was soon conducted with Assam Rifles and the CRPF together, following which two individuals with arms were apprehended. These two individuals have been arrested by the Tamenglong police.”
The police said no injuries were reported in the firing except for the damage incurred to the fire tender and police vehicles.
Jiribam district, which had largely remained peaceful since the conflict began in May 2023, saw violence and arson erupt in June after the bodies of a Kuki-Zo man and a Meitei man were found within weeks of each other, leading to suspicion and rumours in the town about the identity of their respective attackers. There was a spate in arson across villages over the next few days, displacing close to 2,000 people – from both communities – from the district.
While most of the Kuki-Zo people who fled Jiribam after the recent violence are being housed at relief camps across the district’s western border in Assam, most of the Meitei people, displaced from villages bordering the Barak river in Borobekra sub-division, have been put up at camps across Jiribam town.
On Monday, hours after the firing was reported in Jiribam, Mr. Gandhi visited people from both communities displaced in last month’s disturbance in relief camps of Assam and in Jiribam town, and interacted with them before proceeding to other affected areas of Manipur like Churachandpur district in the hills and Moirang and Imphal in the valley.
Published - July 08, 2024 10:41 am IST
