GUWAHATI: Tensions prevail in Manipur’s Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts, a day after a Meitei farmer was shot in his left arm by an unknown armed miscreant, and a Kuki woman died in crossfire.Ningthoujam Biren, the farmer from Phubala area of Bishnupur district, was fired upon when he was working in his paddy field along with two other farmers. He was injured in the incident.After the incident, security forces launched a search operation in and around Langchingmanbi, Heichanglok and the western areas of Phubala. “During the operation, security forces came under fire from unknown armed miscreants, and the forces retaliated accordingly. During the crossfire, one woman from Langchingmanbi village was found dead with a bullet injury. She was later identified as Hoikholhing, wife of Langchingmanbi village chief,” Manipur Police said in a statement.Cases have been registered in connection with the incidents, and an investigation is underway, the statement further stated.Bishnupur adjoins Churachandpur. Bishnupur is a Meitei-majority district while Churachandpur is a Kuki-majority district. The locals of Bishnupur on on June 19 blocked a highway in protest against the attack on the farmer. They demanded the arrest of the assailant and threatened to enforce a shutdown from June 20. It was learnt that Meitei civil society organisations and locals were holding a meeting where they would decide their future course of actions. Meanwhile, a shutdown was being observed in Churachandpur in protest against the killing of the Kuki woman. It was called by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum. The organisation demanded, “immediate action against those responsible for this atrocity, concrete steps from the central government to ensure the protection of tribal lives and territory, and an independent investigation into the repeated buffer zone violations.”The ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis, which had erupted on May 3, 2023, left over 250 people dead and some 60,000 others displaced.
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