Security forces and a suspected Kuki-Zo-Hmar group were engaged in a gunfight for over an hour on Saturday morning after the latter carried out a “warning attack” on Bodobekra police station in Jiribam district.

The action may have been triggered by the “burning down” of an unoccupied school near Jiribam town on Friday.

An official told The Telegraph that the gunfight ensued after the group fired at the police station, around 35km from Jiribam town, at 5.30am. “CRPF personnel fired back. It continued for over an hour. There are no reports of any casualty or injury. The firing was not intense.”

The official said the attempted attack on the police station came a day after the Hmar Village Volunteers (HVV) of Pherzawl and Jiribam districts issued a media statement with a “stern warning to all Meiteis, police, IRB and even Central forces... to leave the place and move to Jiribam town today (Friday) itself... before sunset if you really value your lives” and they will be solely responsible for any eventuality if they fail to comply.

The trigger for the warning issued by the HVV, whose motto is the protection of tribal land and rights, was the burning down of an unoccupied school belonging to a Hmar at 3.30am on Friday, which “clearly shows that the Meiteis never want peace and stability in the region”. The HVV saw the school arson case as a “direct challenge” to the community by the Meitei people and that “we’ll never be mere passive spectators”.

The attack came on a day Manipur police observed its 133rd Raising Day with state DGP Rajiv Singh appealing to the people from both side of the divide “to come forward with suggestions and try to talk it (things) out....”

School arson case

A person familiar with the Blooming Flower Children Foundation School near Jiribam town said at least a whole row of seven-eight classrooms were damaged in the fire on Friday.