Manipur: Clashes erupt between protesters, security forces during agitation over children’s deaths
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Clashes erupted between police personnel and protesters in Manipur’s Imphal West district after thousands defied orders prohibiting public gatherings to take out a torch rally against a recent attack that killed two children, India Today NE reported.
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The two children were killed in Bishnupur’s Tronglaobi on April 7 after a suspected projectile strike hit their home. The incident, which occurred while the family was asleep, left a five-year-old boy and five-month-old girl dead.
Residents had alleged that the projectile was fired from nearby hill slopes, India Today NE reported.
It was also alleged that the projectile had been fired by suspected Kuki militants.
The village where the incident took place is located near the hill areas of Churachandpur and has witnessed tensions since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023.
At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the conflict began. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a Kuki organisation, had rejected the claims that members of the community were connected to the strike on April 7. It had added that “any untoward incident” affecting the Meitei community “should not be automatically attributed to the Kuki-Zo people without proper investigation”.
On Thursday, the protest against the incident began from Lilong and moved...