Guwahati: On Monday, 13 people were found dead in the remote Leithou Mohingyang hamlet, which falls under Machi police station, located about 10 km from Saibol village in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district, security officials confirmed.
At around 10.30 am, Assam Rifles troops in Tengnoupal received inputs of a “firefight” that allegedly took place in Leithou. Security forces deployed in the area, including senior Manipur Police officials, were informed.
“On reaching the spot, security forces found 13 bodies. No weapons were recovered. The identity of those deceased has not been ascertained yet,” a defence official told ThePrint.
The deceased are thought to be the new recruits of a Meitei insurgent outfit, intelligence sources said. They were supposedly trying to cross the Indo-Myanmar border to undergo training for the valley-based insurgent group, but lost their way and ended up in a Kuki-dominated village.
Investigation into the incident is ongoing, and while no insurgent group has claimed responsibility for the incident, the possibility has not been ruled out.
Local sources are concerned about the recent spate of killings and the ever-increasing death toll in the state, where ethnic conflict has seen seven months of fighting and bloodshed, claiming more than 180 lives and displacing tens of thousands.
The killings come just days after the central and the state government on 29 November signed a peace agreement with the breakaway Pambei faction of the Meitei insurgent group, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF).
The Central Committee of the UNLF, the oldest Meitei insurgent group in the state, reportedly released a press statement on 2 December, vowing to carry forward their struggle of independence “till the last blood”.
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