By Tora Agarwala
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) -Ten armed men were killed in a gunfight with security forces in India’s remote northeastern state of Manipur on Monday after trying to attack a police station, officials said.
Manipur has been suffering unrest since last year, when the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis clashed after a court ordered the state government to consider extending special economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education enjoyed by the Kukis to the Meiteis as well.
The state of 3.2 million people has been divided into two ethnic enclaves – a valley controlled by the Meiteis and the Kuki-dominated hills – since the conflict began in May 2023.
The areas are separated by a stretch of no-man’s land monitored by federal paramilitary forces. At least 250 people have been killed and some 60,000 displaced.
State police described Monday’s attackers as “armed militants”, saying in a statement that security forces and police had responded fiercely and brought the situation under control after around 45 minutes of heavy gunfire.
Krishna Kumar, deputy commissioner of Manipur’s Jiribam district, where the incident took place, said “miscreants” who attacked a police station had been killed by central security forces.
However, the Hmar Students’ Association, a tribal body representing the Hmars – a sub-group of the Kuki tribal community – alleged that “village volunteers” had been killed in a “premeditated massacre” by federal and state security forces and “Meitei militants”.
Kumar said the region had been tense since last week, when a 31-year-old tribal woman was burned and killed.
One security officer was critically injured, said a local police official who asked not to be named since he was not authorised to speak to media.
(Reporting by Tora Agarwala, writing by Tanvi Mehta, editing by Ed Osmond and Kevin Liffey)
