Four killed after violence flares in India’s Manipur state

At least four people were killed, two of them by police fire, in India’s ​northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday, officials ‌said, after months of relative calm.

Two children from the mostly Hindu Meitei community were killed after a bomb exploded in ​a house in the Meitei-dominated Bishnupur district, the ​officials and the chief minister’s office said.

Later ⁠on Tuesday, police opened fire to control a crowd ​that had stormed a camp belonging to security forces, ​killing two people, the state’s interior minister, Govindas Konthoujam said.

Clashes first broke out in May 2023 between Manipur’s dominant, mostly ​Hindu Meitei community and the mainly Christian Kuki ​tribes over economic benefits and job quotas. In all some 260 ‌people ⁠have been killed and more than 60,000 displaced.

The children killed in the latest unrest belonged to the Meitei community, whose members alleged the attack was carried ​out by Kuki ​militants. Kuki ⁠groups denied the accusations.

The state’s Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said the perpetrators ​were yet to be identified and that ​the ⁠bomb attack was the “handiwork of individuals or groups with an interest in disturbing the prevailing peace”.

Authorities imposed a ⁠curfew ​in the regional capital Imphal ​and surrounding areas and suspended internet services for five days.