Imphal/New Delhi:
From a daytime ambush on a police convoy by suspected insurgents to a night-time rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on police commando barracks, Manipur's border town of Moreh saw violence on the last day of 2023.
Four police commandos were injured in the RPG attack; another was injured in the ambush on Saturday.
The first attack began with ambushes on special police commandos stationed in Moreh, near a “key location point” of the Assam Rifles. A commando was injured in this attack on Saturday.
At 11:40 PM, the situation became extremely volatile after suspected Kuki insurgents fired an RPG at a police barracks and opened concentrated fire on the police camp.
The police commandos took up position and fired back; The gunfight continued throughout the night, sources said. Four commandos were wounded in the attack, catching them off guard as they retreated for the night.
Images of the barracks show shrapnel in the walls. The injured commandos were taken to the Assam Rifles medical facility in Moreh.
A police commando, standing at the spot where the RPG was launched, pointed to a small window where the projectile had penetrated.
The Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) claimed in a statement that a resident of Moreh, Peter Mate, had been arrested and tortured by police.
Mr Mate, a local school teacher and youth secretary of St George Catholic Church, was arrested on Saturday evening while returning home and during the gun battle between the commandos and suspected insurgents, the ITLF claimed.
Meanwhile, in the capital Imphal, students protested after a bomb was found in their school, Princeton International School.