At least four people, including a 72-year-old woman, were shot dead in an ambush by gunmen in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Monday, police said.
The United Kuki National Army (UKNA), a banned militant outfit, claimed responsibility for the attack that killed three members of another armed Kuki organisation that signed a peace agreement with the government in 2008.
The ambush took place near Mongjang village, about five km from Churachandpur town, around 2 pm when three of the victims were travelling in a car, a police officer said.
The deceased were identified as Thenkhothang Haokip alias Thahpi (48), Seikhogin (34), Lengouhao (35) and Phalhing (72), sources said.
Initial investigations suggest that they were shot from a close range, another official in the Churachandpur district headquarters said.
The three men died on the spot inside the car while the elderly woman, who was passing the area, was hit by a stray bullet. She succumbed to her injuries on the way to the Churachandpur district hospital.
In a statement issued in the evening, the UKNA claimed responsibility for the attack.
Of the four deceased, Haokip was a senior commander of the Kuki National Army (KNA) while Seikhogin and Lengouhao were members of the outfit.
The KNA is the armed wing of the Kuki National Organisation and is one of the 20-odd Kuki rebel groups which had signed the Suspension of Operation (SoO) pact with the central and state governments.
The UKNA is not a signatory to the pact which was signed in 2008 and extended periodically thereafter. The Manipur government, however, pulled out of the agreement in 2023.
In the statement, the UKNA asserted that Thahpi and his colleagues were “punished” as he had killed its senior leader Satkhohao and nearly 30 other youths.
Police said more than 12 empty bullet shells were also recovered from the site of the ambush.
Additional security forces have been rushed to the area, they added.
