Woman among two people killed, 9 injured in Manipur militant attack (Lead)

Imphal: Two people including a woman were killed and nine others – including a police officer and minor daughter of the slain woman – were injured when suspected militants fired in Manipur’s valley areas on Sunday, police said.

Soon after the militant attack – using drones, bombs and many sophisticated weapons – the Manipur government decided to take stern action against the perpetrators.

Manipur Director General of Police Rajiv Singh in an urgent message to the Superintendent of Police of all 16 districts directed to remain on maximum alert and vigilant in all areas including the fringe areas.

“All forces deployed in their areas must also be alerted. There must be proper coordination between the forces deployed in order to prevent any untoward incident. Joint combing operations must be conducted,” said the order, which also asked the senior police officials to monitor the situation closely.

A police official said that the heavily armed militants fired indiscriminately from a hilltop and also threw bombs at the low-lying valley areas of Koutruk and neighbouring Kadangband under Imphal West district killing the 31-year-old woman and a villager besides injuring nine others, including the woman’s eight-year-old daughter and a police officer.

All the injured sustained bullet injuries.

The official said that the abrupt attack by the suspected militants caused widespread tension, and panic leading to the fleeing of many villagers, including women, children, and elderly persons, to take shelter in safer places.

The body of the slain Meitei community woman, identified as Ngangbam Surbala Devi, and the villager have been taken to the government-run Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for autopsy.

The woman’s daughter, police officer N. Robert (30) and other injured persons have also been shifted to RIMS and other hospitals.

The slain woman and the other injured people were at their homes when the heavy firing and bombings started all of a sudden.

Many houses were also damaged in the firing along with bomb attacks.

A huge contingent of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel along with state forces have rushed to the area and launched a combing operation to nab the militants.

The Manipur Home Department soon after the extremists’ attack in a statement said that the state government has learnt about the unfortunate incident of attack on unarmed Koutruk villagers using drones, bombs and many sophisticated weapons on Sunday.

It said that the Kuki militants caused the death of two persons and injured many.

“Such acts of terrorising upon the unarmed villagers is viewed very seriously by the government when the state government is putting all possible efforts towards bringing normalcy and peace in the state.”

Noting that such an act of creating havoc among the unarmed villagers reportedly by Kuki militants is seen as an attempt to derail the efforts taken by the state government to establish peace in the state, the Home Department statement said, adding, that such acts are condemned very strongly.

The state government has already taken immediate action to control the situation and to punish those who were involved in Sunday’s attack at Koutruk village in Imphal West district, the statement said.

Sunday’s incident is the second killing in the past one month.

A former MLA’s wife Charubala Haokip (59) was killed in a blast at Ekou Mullam in Manipur’s tribal-dominated Kangpokpi district on August 11.

According to police the explosion seriously injured Charubala Haokip (59) wife of a former MLA Yamthong Haokip (64) and she was immediately taken to the Community Health Center at Saikul, where she succumbed to her injuries.

The blast happened when the victim was burning waste in her residential complex.

Haokip (MLA from 2017-2022) was also in his house when the explosion took place but he was not injured in the blast.

Charubala belongs to the Meitei community while Yamthong is from the Kuki-Zo community.