A large cache of weapons and ammunition were looted by a mob from the 5th IRB headquarters in Imphal East district on Tuesday night while a similar attack on the Manipur Police Training College led to the death of one person an hour later, a security official told The Telegraph.

The attack on the armouries came hours after a fierce gunfight in the buffer zone between the Meitei-majority Imphal East district and the Kuki-Zo-majority Kangpokpi district, leaving two village volunteers from the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities dead.

There were also intermittent gunfights throughout the night at Sugnu in Kakching that ended on Wednesday afternoon, the official said.

The attack on the police armouries is the latest reported incident since the ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo people began on May 3, reflecting the volatile and precarious law-and-order situation in the northeastern state despite the heavy deployment of central and state forces.

The official told The Telegraph that approximately 300 weapons and thousands of ammunition were looted from the IRB camp at Thengju Chingjin.

A similar attempt was foiled at the MPTC on Tuesday night, leading to the death of one person and taking the toll in the firing incidents during the day in Imphal district to three.

“In the combing operation launched last night itself, six persons were detained, five weapons and 1,000 rounds of ammunition recovered. We are waiting for complete details of the loot or the type of weapons looted or the people involved,” the official said.

A police post on X on Wednesday night said six persons had been arrested in connection with the arms loot at the 5th IRB at Chingarel. They have been remanded in police custody by a judicial magistrate.

“Further, 04 (four) Insas Rifles, 01 (one) AK Ghatak 2, magazines of SLR and 16 small boxes of 9mm ammunition which are suspected to have been looted from 5th IRB have also been recovered by Manipur Police,” the police post said.

On Tuesday night, the state police and the army had shared reports about the gunfight in the border area and the injury sustained by an army official who was part of the team trying to control the firing between “armed miscreants”.

The IRB is a special armed police force raised by a state government along the lines of a paramilitary force, with the Centre funding the cost. The IRB camp and the MPTC are located about 5km away while the gunfight spot is around 10km from the IRB camp.

In August last year, a mob had looted a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including INSAS rifles, LMGs, pistols and grenades, from the 2nd IRB (India Reserve Battalion) headquarters in Meitei-majority Bishnupur district.

The latest attack on the armouries has taken the number of arms and ammunition looted from police stations, reserves, battalions and licensed arms shops, in both the valley and the hills, to over 5,000 and over six lakh, respectively. This a major cause for concern among the residents and the security establishment because the recovery has not been satisfactory despite repeated appeals by the BJP-led government to return the arms and ammunition.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a conglomerate of recognised Kuki-Zo tribes in Churachandpur, condemned the developments and claimed: “Meiteis in Imphal also stormed the 5th IRB headquarters in Imphal East and looted around 200 arms and 20,000 ammunition. What’s more shocking is that the mob faced no resistance from police personnel who were manning the camp.”

“A mob also tried to loot weapons last night from the Manipur Police Training Centre (MPTC), but they were repelled by central security forces. One BSF jawan died in the crossfire while four Meiteis were injured. Any semblance of government control has vanished in Manipur, and violence, including in the capital, is growing day by day. How long will the central government tolerate the Meitei community’s total disregard for the rule of law?” the ITLF questioned.

Meitei organisations have blamed the recurring attacks on Kuki-Zo militants and the influx from Myanmar from the outset. The ethnic conflict has claimed at least 210 lives and left over 67,000 displaced since May last year.