Manipur sees fresh violence: School set on fire in Moreh, houses burned to the ground in Jiribam

The northeastern state of Manipur witnessed fresh violence with a school building at T Motha near Moreh being set ablaze by unknown assailants on Wednesday, Hindustan Times reported. Apart from the violence in the border town, abandoned houses and shops were gutted in Kalinagar, in the Jiribam district.

This spate of violence comes since a beheaded body was recovered last week, putting the already tense state further on edge. The person was missing since June 6 and the violence that recently erupted forced over 1,000 people to flee to Assam and other parts of Jiribam.

The publication, citing people in the know, said that around 9 pm on Wednesday unknown assailants had set the newly constructed Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya school building on fire near Moreh town. The building had not been inaugurated yet.

Moreh, which happens to be one of Manipur's largest commercial hubs, has been closed since violence brokw out in the state, starting from the Churachandpur district on May 3 last year.

HT, citing sources, said that order Security Force (BSF) jawans has planned to set up a post that the newly made school building in the T Motha village which is largely occupied by the Anāl community. This village lies just opposite an Assam Rifles post.

After the arson incident, villagers in surrounding areas blocked roads to the location, placing logs to impede security forces. The Assam Rifles post, meanwhile, remained a silent observer and did not take any steps to extinguish the fire, HT said.

As per the police, in Jiribam, the shop gutted belonged to a Hmar community member. The cops said, according to HT, that the incident took place at around 10:30 pm and with the district police taking quick action, the fire was doused. At 1:30 am on Thursday, three abandoned houses in the same area were also set ablaze by unknown assailants.

Manipur has been seeing ethnic clashes between the majority Meiteis and Kukis, who are dominant in some hill districts. Two hundred and twenty people have lost their lives and at least 50,000 have been displaced so far.

Recently, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh's security convoy also came under attack.