MUMBAI, SEPT 8 – Fresh fighting in India’s strife-torn northeast killed at least five people yesterday, a local government official said, hours after a rocket attack prompted authorities to close schools.
Manipur state has been rocked by periodic violence for more than a year between the Hindu majority Meitei ethnic group and the predominantly Christian Kuki community.
The conflict has dragged on ever since, dividing communities that previously lived together along ethnic lines.
The fresh fighting has killed five people in Jiribam district, which lies on India’s border with war-torn Myanmar.
“Since morning, there has been fighting between two communities in Jiribam. We have recovered five bodies and are awaiting further information,” a local government official, who declined to be identified, told AFP.
One person was shot dead in his sleep and four other ‘gunmen’ were killed in the ‘subsequent exchange of fire’, reports said Press Trust of India.
Yesterday’s violence followed the death of two other people in separate attacks last week.
Schools were ordered to close after a rocket attack by rebels a day earlier killed a 78-year-old man and injured six others.
A local government notice said all schools in the state would be closed on Saturday, when classes are normally held, to protect the ‘safety of students and teachers’. – AFP
