At least 10 killed in clash between Indian police, Kuki forces in Manipur

Violence continues, escalating conflict between Hindu Meitei majority and Christian Kuki community since May 2023

NEW DELHI:

Indian police in troubled northeastern Manipur state on Monday battled with Kuki minority forces and killed at least 10 people after their station was attacked, a district official said Monday.

One officer was wounded as they “repulsed an attack on a police station”, Krishna Kumar, deputy commissioner of the state’s Jiribam district told AFP, adding that “10 bodies of miscreants have been recovered so far”.

The violence is the latest in a simmering conflict that broke out in Manipur in May 2023, between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community.

Those killed come from the Hmar people, a smaller group within the Kuki.

The violence comes after the burned corpse of a Kuki woman was found in the district last week, sparking fury.

At least 200 people have since been killed in the violence, and communities have splintered into rival groups across swaths of the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar.

After months of relative calm, an uptick in violence in September killed at least 11 people, including by insurgents reportedly firing rockets and dropping bombs with drones.

Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.

Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

Manipur is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.