1 killed; Manipur mob loots large cache of arms, ammo

A large cache of arms --- 235 assault rifles, 21 sub-machine guns and 16 pistols --- and ammunition --- 19,000 rounds of bullets and 124 hand-grenades --- was looted from an armoury and a Manipur rifles personnel succumbed to his injuries, officials said on Friday as violence flared afresh in strife-torn Manipur.

Two other people suffered gunshot injuries as well, as tensions surged on Thursday after the Kuki group, Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), announced a mass burial of 35 bodies of victims killed in the violence, which was opposed by Meitei Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI).

Ethnic tensions between the two ethnic groups have plunged Manipur into an unending episode of armed conflict, with at least 150 people dead. The Meitei groups said the mass burial was an act of provocation, triggering a standoff that was resolved only after hectic parleys with both groups by the state government, the Union ministry of home affairs, and a High Court order that directed status quo be maintained at the burial site.

But before the situation was defused, a mob of close to 500 armed people arrived in 40-45 vehicles to lay siege at the headquarters of the 2nd battalion of the India Reserve Battalion in Bishnupur. After overpowering the sentry at the main gate as well as the quarter guard, “they broke two of the doors and looted large number of arms, ammunition, munitions and other accessories...During the incident 320 rounds of ammunition and 20 tear smoke shells were fired to control the mob”, said a police complaint filed on the incident.

An annexure listing the arms and ammunition showed that what was looted included 19,000 rounds of ammunition, 1 AK series assault rifle, 25 INSAS rifles, 4 Ghatak rifles, 5 INSAS light machine guns, 5 MP-5 rifles, 124 hand grenades, 21 SMC carbines, 195 SLR rifles, and 16 9-mm pistols.

Police officials said that among the crowd were people that had gathered to march towards Churachandpur to protest the mass burial planned by the Kuki ITLF, despite it being called off by 9:30 am after the MHA’s intervention.

Several other clashes too took place when people in the valley who planned to march to the mass burial, and were stopped by Army and RAF personnel who fired tear gas shells.

There were at least three other attempts by mobs to loot armouries on Thursday itself that were all repelled, including those of the Manipur Rifles Battalions in Kabo Leikai and Khabeisoi as well as the Singjamei police station.

The dead rifleman was identified on Friday as 48-year-old Tourangbam Rishikumar, of the 6th battalion of the Manipur Rifles, who was injured in a strike by armed assailants in Sekmai.

Rishikumar, who was stationed at a water supply tank to guard the villages near Senjam Chirang, was rushed to a hospital in Imphal, but succumbed to his injuries.

Manipur police officials said, “Security forces retaliated the firing and repelled the miscreants. The security personnel succumbed to his injury. Joint security forces conducted operations in Koutruk hill range and destroyed seven illegal bunkers.”

In a separate incident, 35-year-old Wahida Bibi of Kwakta in Bishnupur district also sustained bullet injuries when she was in her own kitchen after firing between unidentified groups erupted around 4:30 pm on Thursday.

Manipur has been in the throes of ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities since May 3 which have claimed over 150 lives, injured over 300 and left 50,000 displaced. A running theme of the violence have been attempts at looting weapons with more than 4,000 weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition stolen over the past three months. The police had only been able to recover around a thousand of these till July 31, police officers said.

Government officials relaxed curfew that had been imposed in Imphal East and West on Thursday for seven hours on Friday, but admitted that the situation was still “tense.”