Five more people died following the latest outbreak of violence on September 7, 2024, in Jiribam district, Manipur, according to police reports.
One person was lying down when the shooting started, while four others were shot later on when my armed attacking the other armed attacking party in order to protect the badly wounded person, said one of the police.
Militants entered his house which is about 5 km far from the district headquarter and round six people stayed in it because he is an occupant of that house only to kill him in his sleep, he narrated.
The aftermath of the killing witnessed rampant armed confrontation of both opposing communities, this time however one was targeting militants who were based in the hilly regions approximately less than seven kilometers from the district’S base resulting to the death of four armed persons of which three were hill militias according to this officer.
More information is expected shortly.
This past week, the saboteurs ignited fresh arson in the district on Tuesday after it was suspected that “village volunteers” torched down a dilapidated building of a retired police officer, located at Jakuradhor under Borobekra police station.
Tribal body which received accusations on this carries out promotion activities on behalf of Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Committee (Pherzawl and Jiribam).
The peace agreement made by the representatives of the Meitei and Hmar communities on August 1 at a CRPF camp in Assam in a bid to ‘contain further violence’ and “avoid incidents of arson and firing,” however, remained unmet.
Present in the meeting chaired by the Jiribam district administration, Assam Rifles and CRPF officials and officers as well as the Hmar, Meitei and Thadou, Paite and Mizo groups of Jiribam district.
The agreement was, however, denounced by several Hmar tribal bodies based outside Jiribham district claiming that they did not know about it.
Since the last year of May controversy over ethnically based violence in which over two hundred people were killed and thousands more moved base to save their lives, has been between Meitei based in Imphal valley and Kuki-Zo groups based in the hills bordering the valley.
Often multi-ethnic areas, Jiribam saw a flare-up of ethnic conflicts of Imphal valley and surrounding areas which were previously quite peaceful, after one community’s 59 years old man was allegedly murdered by militants of another community in June of this year. Because of such arson from both sides, a lot of the residents were forced to leave their homes and go to relief camps. In the middle of July, a CRPF jawan died when militants ambushed patrols of security forces.
