Victims Thangkhokai Haokip (31), Jamkhogin Haokip (35) and Hollenson Baite (20) were stabbed and had their limbs broken before being shot at close range, sources said.
In Thoubal district, unidentified gunmen shot three young men from the minority community in their legs and left them at the Yairipok-Charangpat Road junction around 2pm, police said.
The Ukhrul trio, assigned to guard their village Thowai, had been asleep in their bunkers when a small group of heavily armed assailants stealthily entered the hamlet around 5am. The manner of the intrusion and the attack that followed suggested the assailants were trained insurgents.
“This attack on an interior village well inside Naga-dominated territory (part of police district Ukhrul and revenue district Kamjong) could only be carried out by insurgents who possibly came in from across the India-Myanmar border,” a source in the security establishment said.
The nearest security post is at Mongneljang, 8km from the Kuki settlement within a cluster of villages inhabited by the Tangkhul Naga community. The attack on Kukis in a Naga area might have been planned to create mistrust between the two tribal communities, sources said.
“This is a pre-planned attack, and a cowardly one. We request security forces to do more to protect tribals, who carry single-shot guns while guarding their homes from attackers carrying sophisticated weapons and mortars stolen from police stations and armouries,” the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum said.
Deploy Army to recover looted arms: Tribal outfit
If violence is to be stopped, the Army and other central security forces should start operations to retrieve looted government-issued weapons. The state police force is fully compromised,” the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum said.
The attack took place a day after Manipur’s plan to rehabilitate people displaced by ethnic violence in prefabricated houses away from their native districts ran into resistance in Tangkhul Naga-inhabited Ukhrul, with both the host community and their prospective Kuki guests said to have “mutually” decided that “this isn’t needed”.
“As directed by the United Naga Council (UNC), no permanent structure or semi-permanent relief camps shall be allowed in Naga areas. We have submitted a memorandum to the government of Manipur on the same issue,” Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL) vice-president R S Jollyson had said Thursday.
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The Nagas have so far maintained a neutral stance in the ongoing Kuki-Meitei conflict, restricting themselves to opposing the demand by Kuki-Zo legislators for a separate administrative set up for the hill districts on the ground that it clashes with their goal of integrating all Naga-inhabited areas of the North-East.
“This attack might be meant to disrupt the ongoing peace talks by the Centre with both NSCN (IM) and the Kuki outfits,” a source said.
The Centre held a round of talks on Thursday with armed Kuki outfits in ceasefire with the government, with another slated for August 31. Talks with NSCN(IM) are scheduled for Monday.
On August 5, six people were killed and a dozen injured in attacks and counter attacks at separate places. The trigger for the spurt of violence was the pre-dawn killing of three people inside their homes at Kwakta in Bishnupur that morning.
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