7 killed in fresh Manipur violence, CM briefs Governor

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh met Governor L. Acharya amid a spurt in violence in the state that left seven persons dead on Saturday, said officials.

The CM’s meeting with Acharya was preceded by marathon high-level discussions between the state police authorities and the BSF over the recent killings.

Biren Singh also held an emergency meeting with the MLAs of the ruling coalition to discuss the law and order situation in the state, sources said.

Among the seven persons killed in Manipur’s Jiribam district on Saturday, four were Kukis and three Meiteis, said the sources.

Apart from the seven deaths on Saturday, an equal number of people have been killed in various incidents in the past week.

During a high-level meeting between police and BSF officials, the use of drones and rockets by extremists was also discussed threadbare, said the sources.

On Friday, a 70-year-old man was killed and five were injured when a rocket-like object fell on the house of late Mairembam Koireng Singh, Manipur’s first Chief Minister, in Bishnupur district.

The violence has increased in the state since the September 1 incident, when drones were used to drop bombs at a village bordering a Meitei-dominated area. Rockets and improvised guns have been increasingly used by extremists to attack each other. Even makeshift bunkers have been discovered by the police.

The police on Saturday said it had deployed anti-drone systems in response to recent drone and rocket attacks on civilians. Briefing reporters in Imphal, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) K Kabib said a robust anti-drone system had been deployed and the police were in the process of buying additional weapons to counter the attacks on civilians.

In a post on X, the Manipur Police on Friday said: “Kuki militants have deployed long-range rockets among the civilian population at two locations of Bishnupur district, in one of which one senior citizen died and six other civilians were injured at Moirang Khoiru Leikai, Bishnupur district.”

“Police teams and additional security forces have been rushed to conduct combing operations in the hill ranges adjoining the area. Two bunkers at Mualsang village and one bunker at Laika Mualsau village of Churachandpur were destroyed. Further, police teams of the Bishnupur district, including the SP, rushed to the area in which they were fired upon by suspected Kuki militants. The police team repelled the attack. A military chopper has been deployed to conduct aerial patrolling,” it had informed further.