New Delhi: One policeman was killed and four others were injured when suspected militants opened fire at them near Tera Khongfangbi in Manipur's Bishnupur district on Thursday, news agency PTI reported. The condition of one of the injured police personnel is critical.
According to the report, the incident took place a few kilometres away from Torbung, where the recent violence in the state had first erupted. Police have launched a combing operation to flush out the militants from the area, officials said.
Meanwhile, two persons were allegedly abducted by suspected militants in Toribung, police said. “The duo had gone to fetch foodgrains from their ransacked home when they were abducted. A search operation has been launched to trace them,” PTI quoted a police officer as saying.
Notably, violent clashes broke out in the northeastern state after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts on May 3 to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meanwhile, in another development, 100 trucks travelling from Dimapur to Imphal, carrying essential commodities, were stopped by mobs at different places in North Kangpokpi district, police said. “The situation is almost under control with successful deployment of troops in sensitive areas,” a police officer said.
Amid the incidents of violence, the members of the Kuki and Meiti communities pasted the names of their communities outside their homes as “safety measure”, news agency ANI reported.
“This fight has happened between two communities. People have pasted the name of their community so that people who have run away from here don't damage the houses. We go to buy necessary things during curfew relaxations,” ANI quoted a local as saying.
Meanwhile, police said that curfew has been further relaxed in all the 11 districts where it was clamped, by six hours from the earlier duration of five hours. The curfew timings vary in these districts.