Five killed, homes torched as fresh clashes erupt in Manipur hill districts

At least five people, including a woman and a Gorkha farmer, were killed and several houses were torched in a series of violent clashes and armed ambushes across Manipur's Kamjong and Ukhrul districts starting Friday evening, police officials said on Saturday.

The outbreak of fresh hostilities in the northeastern state's remote hill terrain highlights the persistent vulnerability of border regions, where ethnic fault lines continue to trigger deadly confrontations despite ongoing counter-insurgency and area domination operations by federal and state security forces.

The violence erupted late Friday night in Chassad village located in the Naga-majority Kamjong district, which shares an international border with Myanmar. Officials stated that a 42-year-old Kuki woman, identified as Domkhonei Touthang, was shot dead during an exchange of fire. Her killing sparked intense retaliatory gunfights between rival armed groups that persisted into Saturday morning, resulting in the death of a 22-year-old man and the torching of roughly 10 residential structures.

In response to the escalating situation, district authorities clamped prohibitory orders under Section 162 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita within a 400-metre radius of the Chassad police gate junction, barring assemblies of five or more individuals to curb further lawlessness.

Separately, in Ningchou village, a Tangkhul Naga settlement also situated in Kamjong near the Myanmar frontier, suspected militants opened indiscriminate fire, killing two residents identified as 35-year-old Ngachanso Ningshen and 48-year-old Leishishan Leishadang. Police and security personnel were rushed to the area to restore order, while local residents reported that the assailants retreated across the border following the assault.

In the neighboring Ukhrul district, a 40-year-old farmer named Sandeep Rai was shot dead inside his vehicle near Chepu Yaolen after unidentified armed attackers ambushed the four-wheeler he was driving. Former Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh and local civil society groups noted that the ongoing cycle of violence over the 24-hour window had claimed additional lives, pushing unofficial estimates higher while drawing sharp reactions from regional tribal bodies.

The latest bloodshed follows a high-stakes security operation conducted between October 4 and 7, during which the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles discovered and neutralized 27 improvised explosive devices planted along an eight-kilometre stretch near the international boundary in Kamjong. Law enforcement agencies maintain a heavy deployment across the affected hill districts to prevent retaliatory mobilization while post-mortem examinations and investigations into the coordinated attacks continue.