Manipur: Mob loots arms from police station after gunfight
Mob storms Manipur police station, loots weapons after gunfight over land dispute leaves three dead and 20 injured in Ukhrul
Guwahati: After a massive gunbattle between two groups over a land-dispute, a mob stormed into a police station and looted arms and ammunitions in Manipur’s Ukhrul town.
Police on Thursday said that three persons including two civilians and a personnel of Manipur Rifle were killed and 20 others injured in a gunfight that broke out between two groups on Wednesday over cleaning a disputed land in the town as part of ‘Swachhata Abhiyan’. The police station was attacked when the violence was going on.
The tensions escalated between residents of two villages in Ukhrul over a longstanding land dispute. The gunfight was triggered after residents of Hunphun village reportedly interrupted students from Hungpung, who were cleaning an area on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Members of the two sides belong to the Tangkhul Naga community but are residents of different villages, security sources said.
In the wake of growing tension the administration had imposed prohibitory orders and suspended mobile internet services in the town after the clash between two groups of the Naga community.
Informing that mob decamped with arms and ammunitions, security sources said, “After violence broke out in Ukhrul town, a mob comprising mostly of youths stormed into the police station located at Wino Bazar and decamped with police weapons.”
Pointing out that police have launched an operation to confiscate the looted weapons, security sources said that they are yet to ascertain the number and types of weapons looted.
Security sources pleading anonymity, however, claimed that the looted weapons included AK-47 and INSAS rifles.
Police said that ten of the critically injured have been referred to a hospital in Imphal while others are being treated in the Ukhrul district hospital.
Meanwhile, three Tangkhul Naga legislators had appealed to the villagers to maintain peace and “resolve the issue amicably through dialogue.
Security sources said that there have been several instances of loot of arms and ammunition in trouble-torn Manipur but it was for the first time a police station was stormed in a Naga-majority area.