Manipur: Total shutdown in Kuki-dominated hill areas

Security personnel patrol in a sensitive area of Manipur following Monday’s gunfight. PIC/PTI

Schools and colleges were closed, markets were shut, and vehicles remained off the roads as the hill areas of Manipur witnessed a total shutdown on Tuesday. Government offices also remained closed.

The 13-hour shutdown, which began at 5 am, was called by the Kuki-Zo Council to "express our collective grief and solidarity for those who were brutally shot dead" in Jiribam on Monday. The Manipur Police said 10 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 the Borobekra police station and an adjacent CRPF camp in Jiribam district. However, a senior government official put the toll at 11.

No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the Kuki-dominated hill areas during the shutdown, officials said. Meanwhile, Kuki-Zo organisations have targeted the central forces, seeking an investigation into the events that unfolded in Jiribam.

The Zomi Students' Federation (ZSF) sought a court-monitored investigation into the gunfight while the Hmar Students' Association (HSA) demanded a CBI investigation into the incident. and also sought immediate withdrawal of CRPF and Manipur Police forces from areas where Kuki-Zo communities live.

Bodies of two Meitei men recovered

Bodies of two elderly men belonging to the Meitei community were recovered on Tuesday morning in Manipur's Jiribam district where a gunfight between suspected militants and security forces broke out a day before, police said. Operations are underway to trace three women and three children, who have been reported missing since the violence erupted in Jiribam on Monday, IGP (operations) I K Muivah said. The bodies of the two men - Laishram Balen and Maibam Kesho - were detected in debris during a search operation in the Jakuradhor Karong area where a few shops were set on fire by suspected militants on Monday.