4 months ago
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A gunfight broke retired betwixt 2 equipped groups connected Thursday (January 8, 2026) greeting successful Manipur's Kangpokpi district, officials said.
Suspected cadres of the banned Zeliangrong United Front (S. Kamson), who went to destruct an alleged illicit poppy cultivation astatine Kharam Vaiphei, engaged successful a gunfight with equipped Kuki underground groups, they said.
There is nary study of immoderate casualty successful the firing, officials said, adding that firing has stopped.
Additional information forces person been rushed to the peripheral areas.
The dependable of firing created hostility and panic successful the peripheral villages of Imphal West district, which stock boundaries with Kangpokpi territory and person witnessed large-scale gunfights betwixt Kuki and Meitei groups successful 2023 and 2024.
Meanwhile, ZUF S. Kamson, successful a statement, said it engaged successful a gunfight astatine astir 7:40 a.m. astatine Kharam Vaiphei with equipped Kuki groups, wherever unlawful activities, including illicit poppy cultivation and mounting up of underground camps of Kuki Suspension of Operations groups, person been reported.
More than 260 radical person been killed successful taste unit successful Manipur since May 2023.
The unit betwixt the Meitei and Kuki communities started aft a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised successful the elevation districts to protestation against the Meitei community's request for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
