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| Tensions flared again in Manipur's troubled Imphal West district on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of two individuals, including a woman, and injuries to nine others. |
Gun-and-bomb attacks carried out by suspected militants in Manipur’s Imphal West district left two people dead – including a woman – and nine others injured on Sunday. The attack was in the area of Koutruk and Kadangband, where militancy directed lively firing from elevations on the hills at the valley areas. The houses which was affected was badly hit by heavy shelling, and of the injured, five of them had bullet wounds while the others where injured by pieces of the bomb.
The attack involved Soyam villages’ alleged Kuki militants using sophisticated high tech drones for the first time to launch RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and dropping bombs, thus raising the stakes. This was a rather uncommon employment of drone operations on both security forces and the civilian population, thus indicating increased vulnerability in the affected area. Manipur Police acknowledge that it resorted to armed drones in a statement and stressed on the gravity of the attack and its consequences on the survival of the common populace.
The attack sparked chaos that made many people, especially women, children and the elderly to run for cover to other areas. The deceased woman was later identified as 31-year-old Ngangbam Surbala Devi and as per the directive of the rights of the victim, her identity has been withheld and the other woman was rushed to the RIMS for a postmortem examination.
The security forces have been deployed to arrest the situation while the state government has denounced the attack, saying that this was an urge to derail any advancement towards the peace process in Manipur. The government has assured the public that they will act swiftly to apprehend the culprits while the police was warned to be on the lookout for any signs of unrest in all the sensitive regions.
This news article is based on inputs from the Press Trust of India (PTI).
