At least nine persons were killed in a fresh round of violence in strife-torn Manipur, further pushing back efforts to ensure normality in the state that has been witnessing unrest since May 3.

According to a police officer in Imphal East district, the nine persons were attacked by suspected Kuki militants in the Aigeganj border village around 11pm on Tuesday night.

“The nine deceased are from the Meitei community. All of them suffered bullet wounds. We suspect the involvement of Kuki militants,” the official said, adding the village is around 30km from Imphal city.

The influential civil society organisation, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), said in a statement that “innocent village guards from the Meitei community were killed by suspected cross-border Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist groups last night at the Khongbal area of Imphal East district”.

Several others have been injured.

The border village where the attack took place is a revenue village under the jurisdiction of Kangpokpi district but law and order-wise it falls under the jurisidiction of the Imphal East police district.

Trouble was reportedly brewing in and around the affected area since Tuesday morning. At least three Kuki villages were burnt in the vicinity of Aigeganj by armed mobs.

“Gorkha Regiment personnel had saved the villagers from the mob, which had started the assault on Tuesday morning. The killings have followed incidents of arson in the area. This Aigeganj area will be about 3-4km from the neighbouring (Imphal East) district,” an official from Kangpokpi said.

The clashes, which started between the Meitei and the Kuki communities on May 3 after a solidarity rally in the hill districts opposing the majority Meiteis' demand for Scheduled Tribe status, have left at least 110 people dead from both communities and at least 60,000 displaced, of which 11,547 have taken shelter in neighbouring Mizoram.

Violence is continuing in Manipur despite the deployment of over 35,000 army and central paramilitary forces, and despite appeals for peace from the government.

Attacks have been on the rise since the stock-taking visit of Union home minister Amit Shah from May 29 to June 1. His appeal for 15-day peace on June 1 does not appear to have had the desired impact.

A fallout of the Aigeganj attack was the curtailing of the curfew relaxation to only four hours in Imphal district, from 5am to 9am. Earlier, curfew had been relaxed from 5am to 6pm.

The incident occurred when the village guards were having dinner around 11pm. At least nine local civilian volunteers were reported dead and several others injured in the attack.

“One of the survivors said that while many of the volunteers were unarmed as they were preparing for dinner, a huge sound from a sudden bomb blast occurred and every one of them began running helter-skelter out of shock,” COCOMI media coordinator Somorendro Thokchom said in the statement.

The bomb seemed to have been “launched from a rocket launcher and then followed by non-stop shooting with automatic rifles from three sides, including the window of the hall”.