Manipur: Four shot dead in Bishnupur as ethnic violence continues in state
Manipur has been rocked by ethnic violence since May last year and over 180 people were killed. The violence erupted on May 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Four people were shot dead in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Thursday evening, said the police. According to the police, the fresh round of violence occurred at Ningthoukhong Kha Khunou. The victims, who died, included a man and his 60-year-old father.
"Five-six armed miscreants came when the labourers were tiling the farmland and shot them from point-blank range," the official said quoting one person who escaped the shooting.
The miscreants fled to the hill ranges from where they had come after killing them, the official added.
The fresh incident came hours after two police commandos were killed by militants in the violence-hit state.
Seven killed in 48 hours in Manipur
With these four, at least seven people including two police commandos were killed in separate districts of the state since Wednesday. Two Manipur Police commandos were killed and two sustained bullet wounds after heavily-armed militants targeted them amid renewed violence in Moreh, a business town close to the Myanmar border, on Wednesday, officials said.
(With PTI inputs)
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