District administration in Manipur’s Jiribam imposed a curfew on Monday as the Kuki-Zo organisations called for a complete shutdown in hill areas to protest the encounter of 11 suspected militants, news agency PTI reported.
The district magistrate (DM) ‘s order prohibited the carrying of firearms, swords, sticks, stones or other lethal weapons, sharp-edged articles or objects of any description that can be used as offensive weapons.
Government agencies/functionaries and security forces involved in maintaining law and order and other essential services would be exempt from the curfew. Written permission will also be required in case of emergencies, marriages, funerals, etc., within the scheduled area.
The DM cited the police report, which expressed apprehensions of widespread disturbance to peace and danger to human lives due to “unlawful activities of some anti-social elements for the furtherance of their evil designs”.
The Kuki-Zo Council claimed the dead were “village volunteers” and announced a total shutdown on Tuesday “starting from 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM in honour of the victims and to express our collective grief and solidarity who were brutally shot dead”. The council also called for an immediate and thorough investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Eleven suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces on Monday after insurgents in camouflage uniforms, armed with sophisticated weapons, fired indiscriminately at a police station and an adjacent CRPF camp in Jiribam district, they said.
Two CRPF personnel also sustained injuries during the heavy exchange of fire at Borobekra, and the condition of one of them was stated to be critical, they said.
Following this incident, fresh violence was reported from multiple places in Imphal Valley where armed groups from the two warring sides engaged in exchanges of fire, police said.
Escalation in Manipur
The northeastern state has been on the boil ever since May 3 last year, when clashes erupted between the All Tribals Students Union (ATSU) and members of the Meitei community over a now-retracted High Court order recommending the state government to consider the inclusion of Hindu Meiteis as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
The recent escalation of violence in the Jiribam district comes after a brief period of lull in ethnic violence that has claimed more than 260 lives and displaced over 60,000 people. Ethnically diverse Jiribam remained largely peaceful.
The district bordering Assam spiralled into violence when a Hmar tribal woman was captured and burned alive on November 7. Two days later, armed militants killed a Meitei woman farmer in a paddy field in Bishnupur district in Imphal Valley. On November 11, three people, including a Naga, were injured in attacks by militants in Imphal East and Bishnupur districts.
(With PTI inputs)