The 48 hours between Saturday and Monday plunged Manipur into a new crisis, involving rare violence among all four of the state’s major communities—Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis and Pangals—while members of a fifth community, Nepalis, were also trapped in the unrest.
It was in these 48 hours that for the first time, clashes broke out between the Meitei (Hindus) and Meitei Pangals (Muslims), leading to a death and the burning of houses, which prompted police to order a curfew. It was in these 48 hours that the Meitei-Kuki clashes resurfaced, after almost three months of no such violence between them, when three men were allegedly killed by Kuki militants.
While the state had recently been roiled by killings in the Naga-Kuki clashes, mid-level security personnel described the weekend’s events as a security nightmare because the latest chain of events, which started on Saturday, opened a series of new security challenges across districts and communities.
Kuki man shot dead
On Saturday afternoon, a Kuki man was shot dead and three others injured in Chassad village in Manipur’s Kamjong district, with Kuki groups blaming Naga militant groups for the attack. The firing, which began around 2pm, escalated as the attackers used bombs. By night, at least 50 houses belonging to both communities had been burnt.
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Naga-Kuki groups confrontation
Gunfights also broke out between armed Naga and Kuki groups in other parts of Kamjong that night, with the situation brought under control only after Assam Rifles personnel intervened. That evening, the police headquarters in Imphal rushed a new Border Security Force (BSF) team to Kamjong to assist the police and Assam Rifles in containing the volatile situation. Even as authorities in the state capital closely monitored developments in the district, violence was unfolding closer to Imphal.
Around 100km away from Kamjong, there was trouble in Thoubal -- around 25km from Imphal.
At 11:20pm, stone-pelting broke out between Meiteis and Pangals attending a music festival in Khangabok Pali town. What began as a confrontation and allegations of one community member assaulting another in the concert crowd, the violence followed a familiar and deadly pattern: escalation (stone pelting), a person shot dead, and houses later set on fire.
Describing the events, Manipur’s additional director general of police (ADG) Lhari Dorjee Lhatoo said, “At around 11:20pm, tension erupted between two communities following a stone-pelting incident by unidentified persons during a musical night at Khangabok Pali Bazar under Thoubal police station. The incidents subsequently escalated and communities of Khangabok and Sangakpham got involved. At around 12:40am, one individual succumbed to his injuries; these were bullet injuries, at Raj Medicity, while several others were injured.”
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Lhatoo did not identify the two communities but people on the ground confirmed the clash was between Meiteis and Pangals, prompting police to order a curfew in the district. The deployment and curfew were necessary because in Manipur’s history of communal and ethnic clashes, Meiteis (Hindus) and Pangals (Muslims) also have a history of communal clashes dating back to 1993 when over 100 people were killed.
Meiteis and Pangals clashes
Barely 20 minutes after stone-pelting broke out between Meiteis and Pangals, as security forces began anti-riot measures, the Manipur Police control room received another alert.
At 11.41pm, a CRPF team came under an IED attack in Singjamei, around 20km from the site of the Thoubal clash, where another CRPF team and other forces were still trying to restore order. The blast at Singjamei left three CRPF officers critically injured.
They were rushed to Raj Medicity hospital, where the body of the Meitei man killed in the Thoubal violence was also being brought around the same time. By 1:50am, violence in Thoubal was over, according to police records. But the worst was yet to come. The events of another violent incident, eight hours later, would make Raj Medicity the focal point of political activity, drawing leaders to the hospital as the state grappled with further escalation in violence.
Attack on Meitei villagers
At 9:40am, an ambush was reported 47km away. Unidentified armed militants opened fire on a group of 14 Meitei villagers, most of them woodcutters, who were transporting chopped firewood at Sunulok Hill under Sagolmang police station.
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“In the incident, three individuals succumbed to bullet injuries. Three other individuals have also sustained injuries,” Lhatoo said at a press conference on Monday evening. While Lhatoo did not identify the ethnic affiliation of the militants behind the attack, Meitei civil society groups and Meitei political leaders who visited Raj Medicity accused Kuki militant groups of involvement.
Security officials said the sequence of events caught both security forces and the political establishment by surprise, prompting Manipur chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh to urgently convene a meeting of the unified command later that evening. The command brings together officers from all security forces deployed in the state, including the Army, to coordinate security operations.
A security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the killing of the three woodcutters could further strain relations between Kukis and Meiteis at a time when there had been signs of improvement. The officer pointed to Friday’s developments in Kangpokpi, where Kuki groups urged deputy chief minister Nemcha Kipgen to begin working from Meitei-dominated Imphal as things had improved between Kukis and Meiteis.
Ethnic tensions continue
Ethnic tensions have forced Kipgen to operate from Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi and stay away from Imphal. She even took oath virtually unlike her other cabinet colleagues in Imphal. In the last few months, interstate buses (with Meitei passengers) have also started from Imphal to Dimapur via Kangpokpi and there are reports of many Kuki people using the airport in Imphal in recent days. The officer also cited the Manipur government’s decision to have a Kuki police officer lead the parade at the police force’s raising day on Monday—the first time a Kuki officer had led such a parade in the Meitei-dominated valley since the clashes began in May 2023.
“It must have taken police days to consider and check intelligence reports to have a Kuki police officer lead a parade in Imphal. Do you remember a former Manipur judge (High Court Chief Justice Siddharth Mridul) once talking about his suspicion of an invisible hand behind the violence in Manipur? Just when things seemed to be improving, the resurgence of Meitei-Kuki violence after all these months was unexpected,” the officer said, adding that the surprises in Manipur seemed far from over.
Around the time the CM was at the police’s Raising Day function, police and security forces faced another challenge - this time right outside the CM’s residence. A group of people arrived in a truck and left the bodies of the Meitei men on the road demanding action against Kuki militants. This was an unprecedented step in the last three years, during which 350 people have died since the ethnic clashes began in 2023. Security forces fired tear gas shells and hurriedly removed the bodies. The forces could not afford tension on the road in Imphal caused by an emotional crowd assembling with the bodies, especially when the law and order situation is fragile at several places and mistrust exists among all communities.
The officer said that communities issuing statements and clarifying their positions after the killings underscored the fragility of the situation. The three woodcutters were killed near a Naga stronghold, close to the boundary between Imphal and Kangpokpi. As Meitei groups and their leaders accused Kuki militants of being behind the killings, the United Naga Council (UNC) issued a statement condemning the deaths, accusing the Kuki groups and reiterating that Nagas were not involved. Kuki leader Nemcha Kipgen too issued a statement condemning the killings and appealing to citizens to remain calm, reject rumours and refrain from retaliatory violence.
“Nagas are already in a war with Kuki groups, as are the Meiteis. Both cannot afford to fight each other so all misunderstandings or rumours are cleared quickly. At a time when three communities were trapped in conflict, the Gorkha and Pangals had remained untouched. But they too have been caught up in the violence this weekend,” the officer added.