Fresh violence broke out in Manipur as security personnel and Kuki terrorists engaged in gunfire in the border town of Moreh in the Tengnoupal district on the morning of 17th January. A police commando identified as Wangkhem Somorjit Meetei from Malom in Imphal West district died while three members of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) sustained injuries as a result of the incident.
Md. Kamal Hussain of the Thoubal district’s Sangaiyumpha hamlet was recognised as one of the wounded. The security men at the IRB station were asleep when the attacks began around 3:30 in the morning.
Today (17.01.2024) at early morning, armed militants orchestrated a violent attack on the State forces, employing firearms and explosives in Moreh, Tengnoupal district. In the incident, one personnel of 6th Manipur Rifles namely Wangkhem Somorjit Meetei S/o (L) W. Chaoton Singh…
— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) January 17, 2024
The attacks were carried out by well-armed terrorists at the IRB post near Ima Kongdong Lairembi, D Khunai post, close to the State Bank of India building, Moreh police station and Muslim Busti under an indefinite curfew enforced throughout the Tengnoupal district. The assailants opened fire on the police in the vicinity of Ward 7. According to police, the attackers also damaged other nearby parked cars with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) shells that they fired at the makeshift command station.
The altercation lasted for more than an hour. The injured were immediately taken to the medical camp of Assam Rifles in Moreh. Afterwards, a hospital in Imphal received an airlift from Moreh transporting the deceased and wounded jawans.
The development came after two persons named Phillip Khongsai and Hemokholal Matein were apprehended on the night of 15th January on suspicion of killing Moreh sub-divisional police officer Chingtham Anand in October 2023. Fearing a “breach of peace, disturbance of public tranquillity and grave danger to human lives and property within the revenue jurisdiction of Tengnoupal,” the Manipur government implemented a complete curfew throughout the district from 12 am on 16th January with an exception to law enforcement and critical services.
The accused were placed under police custody for nine days. They were found in possession of one handgun with two live rounds, one Chinese hand grenade, 10 live rounds of AK ammo and ten detonators, according to the authorities. Numerous women had demonstrated in front of the Moreh police station, calling for their “unconditional release.”
The SDPO was shot and killed as a police team under his supervision was examining the recently built helipad at the Eastern Ground in the border town populated primarily by Kuki-Zo residents. A number of civil society organisations, especially those from Moreh had called for the withdrawal of state troops from the border town weeks before the incident.
Manipur has been shaken by ethnic violence which has claimed over 180 lives since May of last year. It started on 3rd May following a “Tribal Solidarity March” organised by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) which is a Kuki organisation in the hill areas to oppose the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) classification. Four Meitei villagers including a father and a son were recently abducted, tortured and murdered by Kuki terrorists in the Churachandpur district of the northeastern state.
