Imphal 17 October, 2024: After days of silence from gunshots in Manipur, Kuki launched fresh attack to Koutruk Ching Leikai, a village in Imphal Imphal West at around 11.10 pm of Wednesday.
The incident took place on the day the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in collaboration with the Manipur Police, began investigating the drone bombing in Koutruk village.
Police said suspected Kuki militants launched the attack using gunfire and bombs. State forces retaliated with several rounds of gunfire. The gun battle continued till 2am of Thursday. No casualties were reported.
The almost 18 months of armed conflict between Meitei and Kuki (allegedly backed by external forces) have taken away lives of at least 221 people killed, displaced around 60,000 people and demolished over 13,000 structures. Thousands of arms and ammunitions looted from the state armoires are yet to be recovered but police have been putting efforts on recovering the looted weapons.
The NIA’s investigation was its first on-site investigation since the case of drone-bombing was handed over to the agency on September 19.
The suspected Kuki militants’ launched drone attacks on Koutruk village on September 1 and 2 with gun attacks.
The first day attack claimed the life of 31-year-old Ngangbam Surbala and injured her minor daughter by bullets fired by Kuki militants from the Bethel side, a Kuki village adjacent to Koutruk. Surbala was reportedly shot in the head.
On September 2 another drone attack with mortar shells firing on an IRB post and snatched three arms from an IRB bunker.
The NIA team, accompanied by sub-divisional police officer N. Ingocha and a forensic science team, visited the drone bombing site at Koutruk to re-document the crime scene and ensure the proper chain of custody for the evidence. The field investigation was conducted for 3 hours.
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