An army officer aware of developments said the killings occurred around 4.30am in Khoken, a Kuki-dominated village on the boundary between Kangpokpi and Imphal West districts, when a group of militants dressed on olive-green fatigues — resembling the uniform of security personnel — walked in, pretending to be part of a combing operation to retrieve stolen weapons.
“Some combing exercises are being undertaken at night, so this was not a surprise. The militants shot at four people, of which three succumbed to their injuries. The village where this happened is the first village of Kukis after Saheibung, which is a Meitei-dominated village,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.
This is the first major report of violence in Manipur since Sunday night, when an eight-year-old boy, his mother and a relative were charred to death when a mob set fire to an ambulance ferrying them to a hospital in West Imphal district. The killing also eroded the tenuous peace established in the state by security forces and highlighted that ethnic tensions — especially between the Kukis and the Meiteis — continued to run high. It also pushed the death toll in the state to 105.
A police officer aware of the details said at around 7am, officials of the New Keithelmanbi police station received information about the shooting, but they could go to the village only around 3.30pm because they didn’t have a single Kuki officer who could enter the Kuki-dominated village.
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