Manipur: Death Toll in Churachandpur-Bishnupur Border Area Firing Climbs to Four
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Two more people in Manipur died of injuries they sustained in a gunfight near the Churachandpur-Bishnupur district border.
Media reports identify the deceased as 42-year-old L.S. Mangboi and 31-year-old Richard Hemkholun.
The two men reportedly succumbed early on Thursday (August 31) to splinter injuries they suffered the day before in the gunfight, which began on Tuesday morning.
Mangboi, a Kuki lyricist who composed the song ‘I gam hilo ham?’ [‘Isn't this our land?’] during the state's ongoing ethnic conflict, died while being transported to Mizoram for medical treatment, The Hindu reported.
Hemkholun, who the Indian Express identified as a ‘village defence volunteer’, died while undergoing treatment in a Churachandpur hospital.
On Tuesday, two others also lost their lives in the gunfight. They were 30-year-old Jangminlun Gangte and 27-year-old Laibunjam Inao.
Thirteen more people, including two jawans from the India Reserve Battalion, were injured. The soldiers were deployed to the area after Kuki and Meitei groups exchanged fire.
Hindustan Times reported that the firing followed the shooting of a 26-year-old farmer, Salam Jotin Singh, who lives in Naransena village.
Such firing has routinely occurred in places at the border of Kuki and Meitei-dominated areas ever since ethnic conflict began between the two communities in early May. The violence has resulted in their near-total segregation.
While Churachandpur district is dominated by Kukis, Bishnupur has a Meitei majority.
Even as ethnic strife continues to grip Manipur – it has claimed the lives of at least 194 people and displaced tens of thousands of others – Union minister of state in the northeastern region development ministry B.L. Verma said that the situation in the state was “firmly under control”.
Meanwhile, a defence source told The Hindu that women-led groups in Bishnupur were preventing security reinforcements from reaching the border area where firing took place.
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