The logo of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Credit: PTI File Photo
Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday said that it arrested a valley-based insurgent from Manipur in Kerala's Kannnur district, who was an accused in the killing of a Kuki lady doctor in Jiribam district in November last year.
The accused, Rajkumar Maipaksana, the NIA said, is a cadre of proscribed insurgent group People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak. "He was among the key perpetrators of the crime, in which a woman, Zosangkim, was massacred and several houses were set afire and looted in Zairawn village in November last year," the NIA said in a statement.
A NIA court in Kannur allowed transit remand for his production in a NIA court in Imphal. The NIA recently arrested two more cadres of UNLF and KYKL, two other valley-based insurgent groups, for alleged involvement in the attack.
The killing of the Hmar woman triggered fresh tension in Jiribam, which remained by and large free from the Meitei-Kuki conflict that had roiled Manipur since May 2023. The husband of the woman alleged that she was raped and burnt alive but the post-mortem could not find evidence of rape as her mortal remains were badly burnt.
Arrest in Assam
The NIA also arrested an accused in the attack on a IRB post in Moreh in Kuki-dominated Tegnopal district in Manipur on January 17 last year, in which a policeman was killed and two others injured.
Thangminlar Mate alias Lenin Mate, a resident of Tegnopal, was nabbed in Silchar, Assam, on Sunday. Mate’s affiliation to any militant group is not clear yet, NIA said. Mate is the first person to be arrested in the case.
Manipur has remained under President's Rule since February due to the conflict involving the Meitei and the Kuki community since May 2023. More than 250 people have died and over 60,000 others have been displaced. The MHA had handed over some of the cases related to the crimes to the NIA and CBI.