Three persons from the Kuki community were killed in Manipur on Friday. The killings snapped a 13-day lull in violence and took place in a neutral Naga-dominated district for the first time since the clashes began on May 3.
Thawai Kuki village, located along the border of the Naga-majority Ukhrul and Kamjong districts, witnessed the three murders between 4.30am and 5am. The village falls under the Phungyar sub-division of Kamjong district but the police jurisdiction is still with Ukhrul from which Kamjong was carved out in 2016.
The United Naga Council (UNC), the apex body of the Nagas in Manipur, have appealed to both the Meitei and Kuki communities not to indulge in such attacks in a neutral area.
“Our stand is very clear — neutrality. We request both communities not to do such things in our area,” former UNC president Samson Remei said. The Naga people have remained neutral in the ongoing unrest.
Thawai Kuki is a small village on the periphery of the district, an Ukhrul resident said.
“It is a village with about 50 households. We have heard that after the unrest began on May 3, people, especially youths, from the neighbouring Kuki villages took refuge in that village. The women and children went further inside and the youths were guarding the village. We have heard about the deaths of three Kuki persons,” he said.
A Naga community elder said this was the first time during the ongoing unrest that such an attack had taken place in Ukhrul district.
“The Meitei people have entered the hill area where Kukis have settled. We have been neutral and our slogan is normality should prevail in the state,” he said. Ukhrul is a hill district.
The Kamjong district administration has identified the three persons who died in the “firing incident” on Friday as Jamkhogin Haokip, 26, Thangkhokai Haokip, 35, and Hollenson Baite, 24.
“There are three casualties. It is a Kuki village. Right now, we have no definite information about the involvement of any group,” a police officer told The Telegraph in the afternoon.
The last killings in Manipur took place on August 5. While three Meitei persons were killed in their sleep by a suspected Kuki group in Kwakta village of Bishnupur district, two Kuki persons were slain during a follow-up search operation in adjoining Churachandpur district.
The police officer said security reinforcements had been sent to the affected area, which is about 8km from the nearest Meitei village in the bordering Imphal East district.
