At least six persons were killed in a gunfight between suspected Kuki militants and Meitei village volunteers in Manipur’s Jiribam district on Saturday morning, capping a week of unprecedented drone and rocket attacks in the strife-hit state.

The Manipur police said they had deployed an anti-drone system to check the rise in aerial attacks since Sunday.

The unending cycle of violence prompted embattled chief minister N. Biren Singh to convene a meeting of ruling coalition MLAs and seek an appointment with governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya at 7pm.

Before the chief minister, the government’s security adviser Kuldiep Singh and chief secretary V. Joshi met the governor, who landed in Imphal around 2pm on Saturday, signalling hectic activities within the establishment over the unfolding security issues.

Neither officials nor BJP leaders disclosed what transpired in the two-hour meeting that started around 5pm. The chief minister met the governor around 7.30pm “in a closed-door meeting”.

Reports emerging from Imphal suggested that the chief minister could recommend putting the state Assembly under suspended animation and dropping the two Kuki-Zo ministers from the state cabinet. Ten Kuki-Zo MLAs, seven of whom are from the ruling BJP, have not attended the Assembly sessions held after the ethnic conflict began in May last year.

Debris of a missile in Moirang, Manipur Sourced by The Telegraph

The police said in Imphal that suspected Kuki militants attacked a village in Jiribam, killing a 63-year-old Meitei man.

Firing bullets, the armed Kuki group next reached Rashidpur village where the Meiteis retaliated.

“When the Jiribam superintendent of police rushed to the spot, his team also came under fire. They retaliated and the situation was brought under control,” a police official said.

An official in Jiribam said the attack on a Meitei village, about 8km from the district headquarters, by an armed Kuki group started around 9.30am.

“The Meitei group retaliated, resulting in heavy firing between the two warring sides. The situation was controlled by 9.30am. Two Meiteis and four Kuki-Zos were killed today (Saturday). Curfew has been imposed in the district,” the official said.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (Cocomi), a leading conglomerate of Meitei-based civil society organisations, had earlier in the day sought the resignation of the security adviser and director-general of police (DGP) Rajiv Singh over their “handling of the security crisis in the state”.

In its letter to Kuldiep Singh, the Cocomi referred to the “continuous drone bombings and aerial attacks (on Sunday, Monday and Friday) by armed Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist groups operating from the hill areas have put civilians at severe risk, yet there has been no meaningful response or intervention from your end”.

The Cocomi had organised a human chain protest on Friday against Sunday’s drone bombing in Imphal West district that left a 31-year-old Meitei woman dead.

‘Public emergency’

The Cocomi had declared a public emergency after the aerial attack in Bishnupur district bordering Churachandpur hours after their human chain protest. The police said the attack, in which a 78-year-old priest was killed, was carried out by Kuki militants.

Six more civilians were injured by rocket bombs, one of which fell on the house of the state’s first chief minister Mairembam Koireng Singh.

Articulating the fear and anger on the ground, the Cocomi in a statement on Saturday said: “In response to the rapidly escalating violence and the complicit role of the Indian Armed Forces in shielding immigrant Kuki militants, Cocomi has declared a state of Public Emergency in Manipur, effective immediately.”

“The declaration comes after months of violence, particularly the recent drone and missile attacks targeting civilians, which have resulted in multiple casualties. The people of Manipur, especially the indigenous Meetei population, now face a coordinated proxy war by the Indian government and its military allies,” the Cocomi said.

The Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Committee (ITAC), a Kuki-Zo organisation operating in Jiribam-Pherzawl districts, condoled the death of the four village volunteers on Saturday at Nungcheppi near Muolzawl village in Jiribam and claimed they were killed by UNLF militants (a Meitei group).

The ITAC said: “The ITAC will not turn a blind eye towards the death of the four village volunteers and demand the immediate removal of the UNLF designated camp from Jiribam area.”

Another leading Kuki-Zo organisation, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), in a statement claimed that Meitei militants launched a multi-pronged attack in Kuki-Zo areas in the past two days to divert attention from the leaked audio tapes of the chief minister that (purportedly) proved his involvement in the ethnic cleansing of Kuki-Zos.