A 67-year-old Meitei man, his son and a neighbour, were shot dead and then slashed with sharp weapons by suspected Kuki insurgents while they were asleep in their home in Manipur's Bishnupur. The district has remained volatile since Thursday.
The incident took place in the wee hours of Saturday at Ukha Tampak village near Kwakta, a town which acts as buffer between the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley and the Kuki-inhabited hill districts.
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Family members of the victims told television channels that the three men were in their homes while the female members and the children of the family had fled and taken shelter in relief camps due to the ongoing violence in the area.
Bishnupur has remained on the boil ever since a large number of armed miscreants allegedly looted armory of an IRB camp at Naranseina and fled with nearly 300 sophisticated weapons and ammunition. Security forces fired over 300 rounds in order disperse the miscreants while a mob of Meitei women clashed with the central security forces, who stopped them from marching towards Churachandpur, a hill district.
BJP MLA question forces:
BJP MLA Raj Kumar Imo Singh, in a video message on Saturday questioned how could insurgents sneak into Bishnupur and kill the three persons despite presence of so many central security forces.
"The so-called central paramilitary forces who are deployed there has to answer this question. How on earth this allowed to happen? Action must be immediately taken against the particular unit which was deployed in the area," Singh, a three-time MLA and son-in-law of CM N. Biren Singh said.
"There can never be peace and stability without action against such lapses. Complete disarmament is the need of the hour," he said. Singh, however, did not say anything about allegations about the state government's failure to stop the violence.
Kukis on arms loot:
Expressing concern over frequent looting of weapons from the security forces allegedly by "Meitei miscreants," Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a Kuki organisation on Saturday said Manipur could witness further bloodbath if action is not taken to recover such weapons. It said more than 4,000 weapons and lakhs of ammunition were “looted” from different police stations and armouries by Meitei mobs in Imphal and the adjoining valley in May.
Similarly, nearly 300 weapons were snatched from Bishnupur district on Thursday. "It is clear as daylight that the majority community is amassing arms to launch an attack on Kuki-Zo tribals.
The number of guns, ammunition and explosives that are in the hands of the Meitei community are also a security risk for the country as a whole," ITLF said.