Indian security forces prevented an attempted loot of weapons by suspected armed militants from an army camp during a skirmish that left one person dead in Khangabok in Thoubal district of ethnic riot-hit Manipur state on Tuesday, ANI reported yesterday.
Quoting a statement by the Spear Corps of the Indian Army, ANI said while one individual involved in the attempted loot was killed, several others sustained injuries during the incident.
The Spear Corps took to Twitter and said, “An attempt to loot weapons from an India Reserve Battalion at Khangabok in Thoubal district of Manipur was successfully thwarted by security forces today. One rioter was killed while a few others were injured during the failed attempt.”
According to the statement, the situation was brought under control by the deployment of additional units from the Assam Rifles and Rapid Action Force. The reinforcements successfully managed to address the roadblocks set up by a mob, thereby ensuring the restoration of normalcy.
It said the mob had set up roadblocks to prevent the movement of reinforcements. However, additional columns of Assam Rifles and Rapid Action Force were able to induct reinforcements and the situation was brought under control by “synergised efforts of security forces.”
Meanwhile, nearly all schools remained shut in Manipur despite a government order to reopen them yesterday in a bid to restore normalcy.
Students, teachers and support staff did not show up at schools in the morning, said a state education department official. Four private schools opened but all government-run schools were still closed, he added.
“There is a sense of fear and insecurity among the people and hence we decided against sending our children to school,” said Ibotombi Singh, a businessman from the state capital Imphal.
The state government, run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political party, had ordered schools to reopen from yesterday for children aged between five and 14 even as sporadic fighting between ethnic groups continued in the hilly state that borders Myanmar.
Footage from news agency ANI, however, showed dozens of students taking lessons inside a classroom and walking in the premises of a school in Imphal.
Resentment between members of the Kuki tribe, who live in the hills, get economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education, and the Meiteis, who control the more prosperous lowlands, spilled over as they clashed on May 3.
