Hours before Rahul Gandhi’s Manipur visit, firing in Jiribam

According to the police, gunmen opened fire from Phaitol in the neighbouring hill district of Tamenglong towards Gularthol at around 3.30 am on Monday.

Jiribam Pradip Singh, Superintendent of Police, Jiribam, told The Indian Express that by 10 am, Tamenglong police arrested two people from the Kuki-Zo community in connection with the firing and recovered some weapons as well. While there were no injuries in the firing, an armoured Casspir vehicle was among the things that came under fire.

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“There was proper coordination between the police, the CRPF and the Assam Rifles in countering the attack,” Singh said.

Tensions sparked in Jiribam when a Meitei resident Soibam Sarathkumar Singh was found killed on June 6. Following that, homes of Kuki-Zo residents in and around Jiribam town – where Meiteis are in majority – were torched resulting in the displacement of more than 1,000 Kuki-Zo people from the district and seeking shelter in Cachar.

After this, the homes of Meitei families living in the Borobekra division of the district, close to areas where Zo people are in the majority, were burnt. More than 900 people from this area were displaced after their homes were torched. They are now been sheltering in relief camps in the district.

Following the escalated tension in the district since then, it has been relatively quiet since the flare-up last month, barring an incident in which a police checkpoint had been set on fire two weeks ago.