Security has been beefed up in the hill-districts of Manipur in the wake of a fierce clash between the militants of two rebel outfits.

Altogether, 12 militants of the proscribed Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) were shot dead by the rebels of another outfit in a remote village at Ukhrul district of the north-eastern State.

Police said that the KLA militants were gunned down by the armed guerrillas of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) on Monday. The NSCN (IM), however, denied involvement of any of its activists in the clash.
The KLA is one of the several militias of the tribal Kukis. The NSCN (IM) now spearheads the more-than-50-year-old insurgency by the Nagas.

The district’s Superintendent of Police (SP) L Dorjee said that security was stepped up to ensure that the incident does not spark off an ethnic clash between the Nagas and the Kukis.

The Nagas are the dominant tribe in the hill-districts of Manipur. The Kukis account for the second largest tribal population. The two tribes had several fierce clashes in early and mid 1990s, resulting in death of hundreds and displacement of thousands.

The SP said that the gun-battle took place at the Thangkhul Hundung village. The KLA guerrillas were travelling by two jeeps, which were ambushed by the NSCN (IM) militants. Ten KLA militants were killed on the scene and two others succumbed to injuries, he said.

Ukhrul has been a stronghold of the NSCN (IM). But the NSCN (IM) secretary Tongmeth W Konyak said that the outfit had no role in the killing of the KLA militants.