One dead, several injured in fresh ethnic clash in Manipur's Churachandpur

Fresh ethnic clashes have erupted in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, police said on Wednesday, adding that one person has died and several others were injured.

The clashes erupted between two different tribal ethnic groups belonging to the Zomi and Hmar tribes in the district.

A police official in Imphal said the violence occurred late on Tuesday night hours after a peace settlement was reached between the apex bodies of the two communities and the family members of two erring groups.

According to the police officials, the fresh hostility erupted after some people attempted to take down a flag of a Zomi armed group in the tribal-inhabited Churachandpur town. Before the security forces reached the area, mobs and armed cadres of both Zomi and Hmar tribes engaged in clashes and stone pelting.

The security personnel later fired tear gas shells and fired several rounds in the air to disperse the warring crowds, the official said, adding that how the man was killed has not yet been confirmed.

The deceased was identified as Lalropui Pakhumate (53).

Security forces had to face a serious challenge in controlling the mobs that vandalised several properties even as shots were also fired by some armed cadres who had mingled among the crowds of both rival factions.

“It is also not yet clear who fired the shots,” the official said.

District Magistrate Dharun Kumar S. in an appeal said that attacks and counter-attacks have been reported and there is an urgent need to restore peace and maintain law and order.

He appealed to all to shun violent activities and not to take the law into their hands. A huge contingent of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) has been deployed in Churachandpur district town and adjoining mixed and sensitive areas to maintain a strict vigil and to prevent people from resorting to violence.

The CAPF personnel led by senior officials also conducted flag marches in different trouble-torn areas of the district. Two tribal organisations in Manipur -- the Hmar Inpui and the Zomi Council – on Tuesday withdrew the indefinite shutdown in Churachandpur district after the two communities settled the row over the severe assault of a senior Hmar tribal leader on March 16.

The leaders of Hmar Inpui and the Zomi Council held a meeting with the families of the victims and attackers and settled the dispute as per local customary law and practices.

The indefinite shutdown in Churachandpur district was called after Hmar Inpui General Secretary, Richard Laltanpuia Hmar, who was on his way home, was stopped, blindfolded, and severely beaten inside the campus of V.K. Montessori School on March 16 by the “local miscreants”.

Laltanpuia Hmar is now undergoing medical treatment at a hospital due to excessive bleeding and injuries. Tuesday’s meeting between the two tribal bodies and the families of the victim and the attackers decided that the “culprit family would hand over Rs 50,000 to the victim’s family in lieu of traditional and customary peace feast”.

“The culprit's family will make an initial payment of Rs 2 lakh for medical treatment expenses of Richard Laltanpuia Hmar and also pay any additional cost involved beyond the Rs 2 lakh which will be intimated later to the culprit's family. In case, any serious case arises due to the brutal attack, both parties should meet again to solve the matter. Both the parties agreed that such perpetration of violence against one another should not occur in the future,” the resolution adopted in the meeting had said.