At least five killed in fresh Manipur violence

People display placards during a public rally against the killing of 3 Naga people by suspected Kuki militants at Kailenjang, in Senapati. File | Photo Credit: ANI At least five people were killed in clashes between armed groups and attacks on villages in separate incidents in Manipur’s Kamjong and Ukhrul districts since Friday (October 9, 2026) evening.Former Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh and people living along the India-Myanmar border said that seven people had died during the last 24 hours. The two additional deaths that they claimed were reportedly members of the extremist Kuki National Army (Burma), which allegedly attacked Naga border villages in the Naga-majority Kamjong district.Two Naga civilians were also reported missing from the Litan area in Ukhrul district, where a Gurkha farmer from Senapati district, identified as 40-year-old Sandeep Rai, was gunned down while driving on the Mahadev-Talui road on Saturday (October 10, 2026).The attacks and resultant casualties followed a security operation carried out between October 4 and 7, during which the Indian Army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles detected and defused 27 improvised explosive devices planted along an 8-km stretch of the Myanmar border in Kamjong district.Gunfight in KamjongIn the first incident, a 42-year-old Kuki woman named Domkhonei Touthang was shot dead in the Chassad Kuki village in Kamjong district on Friday night. The gunfight between armed groups in the area continued till Saturday morning, also resulting in the death of 22-year-old Michael Ngamminlen Haokip.The deaths of two more people, reportedly Myanmar-based Kuki extremists, in the gunfight could not be officially confirmed.Nagas blame Kuki extremistsThe Working Committee of the Tangkhul Naga Long (WC-TNL) alleged that Kuki extremists had fired at a team of the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) on routine patrolling duty in Chassad Kuki village, leading to the gunfight that started Friday (October 9) night.The Naga organisation further alleged that the Kuki extremists launched an armed offensive against Naga civilians on Saturday (October 10) and set ablaze nine houses in Kamjong, the district headquarters. It said two Naga civil defence volunteers — B.S. Honreipam and Ringphami Jajo — sustained gunshot wounds.The WC-TNL said the Kuki extremists attacked Ningchou village in the same district later in the day, killing two Naga civilians identified as Ngachanso Ningshen and Leishisan Leishadang. The Myanmar-based extremists also reportedly set a police station in Kamjong on fire.“The external aggression against Naga villagers of Kamjong bordering Myanmar has become a routine affair since the outbreak of violent conflict in the hills of Manipur,” the WC-TNL said.Kukis blame IRB, NSCN-IMOn the other hand, Kuki organisations blamed the killing of community members on the IRB and the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagalim, also known as the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN.“The IRB personnel attempted to forcibly disperse the Chassad Village Guards, who have been defending their ancestral village with their lives, from their legitimate posts…When the brave women of Chassad came forward to defend their Village Guards, the IRB personnel in a most cowardly, inhumane and indiscriminate manner opened fire upon the unarmed womenfolk, resulting in the death of Domkhonei Touthang,” the Kuki Students’ Organisation said.It demanded the immediate registration of an FIR and arrest of all IRB personnel involved in the killing, immediate ex-gratia and justice for the family of the deceased, a high-level independent inquiry by the Central government into the alleged infiltration of NSCN (I-M) cadres into the IRB, and the withdrawal of “such biased” State forces.Manipur’s Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen and the Kuki Inpi Manipur, an apex tribal body, condemned the killing of the two Kuki civilians in Kamjong district and the Gurkha farmer in Ukhrul district. They sought interventions from the Centre, the State government, and national and international human rights organisations.The fresh wave of violence in Manipur occurred on a day that Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, and assured him of all possible help in the efforts to bring peace and normalcy in the State, a government statement said. Published - October 10, 2026 10:42 pm IST