Imphal, Sept. 25 : Residents of Chingnungkok, a Meitei village in Manipur’s Imphal East, fled their homes today after suspected cadres of the Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) abducted and shot dead two persons from Happy Land, a neighbouring Tangkhul Naga village in the district, last night.
Sources said the attack by the militant group, a majority of whose cadres are Meiteis, could be in retaliation to the abduction and killing of two of its cadres by suspected cadres of the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) from Happy Land on September 21. The two were abducted from a house in the village and killed at Nongren, 5km away.
Fearing reprisal from armed groups, villagers of Chingnungkok, the nearest Meitei village, fled this morning and took shelter at nearby Tellou village.
A police team rushed to the villages this morning to defuse tension.
The police said nearly 10 armed militants arrived at Happy Land village at 7.30 last evening, looking for village chief L.K. Vareiso, 41. When the gunmen were told that he was not home, they set on fire the kitchen portion of his house. They also abducted N.K. Jayson, 33, a clerk in the village church, and S. Vencher, 36, a member of the village authority. Both Jayson and Vencher belong to the Naga community. Villagers recovered their bullet-riddled bodies from the road connecting Chingnungkok and Happy Land this morning and informed the police.
Vareiso told the police that he suspected the KCP (MC) to be behind last night’s attack.
“The situation is tense, but under control. We are on full alert. A police team has been rushed to defuse tension and normalise the situation,” Imphal East SP Th. Radheshyam Singh said. The police have launched a search operation in and around the village to track down the attackers.