Ethnic violence in India's Manipur escalates, six killed

By Tora Agarwala

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Six people, including one civilian, were killed as fresh violence broke out between two warring ethnic communities in the northeast Indian state of Manipur on Saturday, authorities said.

The majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis have clashed sporadically since last year after a court ordered the state government to consider extending special economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education enjoyed by the Kukis to the Meiteis as well.

More than 225 people have been killed and some 60,000 have been displaced.

Saturday's gunfire incident represents the most number of casualties for a single day in the latest spurt of violence that began a week ago. The attacks earlier this week have also seen the use of drones to drop explosive devices in what authorities have called a significant escalation.

Police say they suspect that the drones were used by Kuki militants - a claim denied by Kuki groups.

"Fighting has been going on between armed groups of both the communities since the morning," said Krishna Kumar, deputy commissioner of the state's Jiribam district where the clash occurred.

According to Indian media reports, the civilian was shot dead in his sleep. "He was fired upon in his room itself," Kumar told Reuters, adding that security forces had been deployed to control the situation. 

Manipur has ordered all schools in the state to remain shut on Saturday.

A state of 3.2 million people, Manipur has been divided into two ethnic enclaves since the conflict began in May 2023 - a valley controlled by the Meiteis and the Kuki-dominated hills. The areas are separated by a stretch of no-man's land monitored by federal paramilitary forces. 

On Sept. 1, two people were killed and several injured in the valley district of Imphal West. Later in the week, a 78-year-old man was killed and six were injured when a "long-range rocket" was deployed by militants and fell on the house of a former chief minister in the valley's Bishnupur district, police said on Friday.

(Reporting by Tora Agarwala in Guwahati and Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)