Fresh violence In Manipur, two commando killed as militants fire RPG

Guwahati : Amid the prevailing tension, at least two police personnel including a Manipur Police commando were killed on Wednesday in an attack by heavily armed militants in the border town Moreh. Security forces are retaliating to the attack that has ensued an encounter between the security forces and militants. Security sources said that heavily armed militants lobbed grenades and opened fire on a security post near Moreh on the India-Myanmar border.

Indicating that militants fired RPG shells at the temporary commando post damaging several vehicles parked in the vicinity, security sources said that one of the commandos who were killed in the attack was identified as Wangkhem Somorjit, an IRB personnel attached to state police commando in Moreh. Somorjit hails from Malom in Imphal West district. The encounter was still going on as the state government has asked for choppers to evacuate the injured personnel if required, security sources said, adding that more security forces have been rushed to the area to push back the militants.

The attack took place a day after massive protests by Kuki groups opposing the arrest of two tribal



leaders by police in connection with the killing of a police officer. It is significant that fearing violence and retaliatory attacks by locals in Moreh, the state government had clamped curfew in the area on Tuesday. The order by District Magistrate Tengnoupal stated that the curfew shall, however, not apply to "agencies of the government employed in the enforcement of law and order and maintenance of essential services".

Police had arrested Phillip Khongsai and Hemokholal Mate, the two main suspects in the killing of SDPO Ch Anand in October last year. The two had fired at the vehicles of the security personnel following which police chased and overpowered them. Moreh-based civil society groups including Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal had vehemently condemned the arrest. 

The Kuki tribes have been agitating and asking the Centre to remove the state police from Moreh and keep only central forces. They alleged that the police were attacking Kuki civilians. The Manipur Police have refuted the allegations and said that those attacking the state police commandos were hill-based insurgents.