Imphal (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At least two people died and 10 were wounded in an armed attack that took place yesterday in Manipur, a state in north-eastern India shaken by interethnic violence for over a year.
This is the first time that rebels have used drones to drop explosives on security forces, "an unprecedented attack" and a "significant escalation" of violence, according to local police.
Clashes broke out in May 2023 between ethnic Kuki (also known as Zo), who are mainly minority Christians from hill areas, and majority Hindu Meitei, who dominate government and police, over land and government jobs, which include reservations for Indigenous peoples.
Last month, Manipur’s Chief Minister, N. Biren Singh (from the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power at the Union level), told the State Assembly that since the conflict started at least 226 people have died and almost 60,000 have been displaced.
The drone attack occurred on Sunday, 1 September, around 2 pm in the border area between Koutruk, a Meitei majority village in Imphal West district, and the mostly Kuki Kangkopki. Of the two people killed, only Ngangbam Surbala, 31, was identified, while her daughter was wounded.
According to state police, the involvement of ethnic Kuki fighters and "highly qualified professionals, possibly with technical expertise and support” could not be ruled out.
Director General of Police Rajiv Singh ordered “maximum alert", especially in the "fringe areas", while the Home Affairs Ministry of the northeastern state called the attack an “act of terrorising unarmed villagers” and an “attempt to derail the efforts taken by the state government to establish peace.”
Some Meitei groups called it a “serious war crime”, urging immediate action by the state government.
Tensions have been rising since 7 August, when the Kuki Students' Organisation released excerpts of an audio in the possession of the National Commission of Inquiry into the violence in Manipur set up by the Union Home Affairs Ministry, as reported by The Wire Indian news website.
A voice can be heard on the audio file, thought to be that of Chief Minister Singh, admitting to fuelling the violence rather than quelling it.
The Manipur government, which dismissed the recording as "doctored", is alleged to have allowed the use of bombs against tribal villages and turned a blind eye to the theft of weapons from local police stations.
On Saturday, a day before the drone attack, representatives of the Kuki community held demonstrations across Manipur to demand their own statehood.
Although this unacceptable to the Meitei, some rebel groups have made it their own, even at the cost of using violence to achieve it.
The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been accused by many of ignoring the conflict and not doing enough to stop the spiral of violence.
Talks between the parties have led nowhere and many in the State, both Meitei and Kuki, said they felt forced to take up arms over the past year to defend themselves.
According to analyst Praveen Donthi of the International Crisis Group, outlawed groups of Meitei fighters have returned to Manipur from neighbouring Myanmar (where a civil has been raging for over three years), and are now accused by the local population of extorting money
“The Meitei insurgent groups based in Myanmar, who were at their weakest before May last year, have seen a resurgence, probably beyond their wildest expectations, due to the current conflict in Manipur,” said the expert.
“The insurgent groups and separatist tendencies are strengthening every day,” he lamented, and this might morph into a regional conflict.
