NEW DELHI: At least ten persons were killed in the clash between Indian police and Kuki minority forces in Manipur state on Monday, according to a district official, when their station was attacked.
According to Krishna Kumar, deputy commissioner of the state’s Jiribam district, “ten bodies of miscreants have been recovered so far,” and one officer was injured when they “repulsed an attack on a police station.”
The violence is the most recent development in a long-simmering dispute between the largely Christian Kuki community and the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority that began in Manipur in May 2023.
The Hmar people, a smaller group within the Kuki, are the ones that were killed.
The violence follows outrage sparked by the discovery of a Kuki woman’s charred corpse in the district last week.
Across large areas of the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar, villages have broken up into competing groups, and at least 200 people have now died in the bloodshed.
At least 11 people were killed in September after months of relative calm, including by insurgents who reportedly used drones to drop bombs and fired rockets.
Competition for governmental jobs and land has long been a source of animosity between the Kuki and Meitei groups.
Local officials have been charged by rights campaigners with escalating ethnic tensions for political purposes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is in power in Manipur.
