Parents among 4 shot dead, kid battles bullet injuries: How violence struck 2 Manipur villages on ‘Black Day’

IMPHAL: A six-year-old boy is battling bullet injuries after his parents were shot dead in a pre-dawn attack in Manipur’s Tamenglong district, while two other people were killed in a separate attack in neighbouring Noney district on Sunday, in a bloody day for Kuki villages observed as ‘Black Day’ by the community.In the first attack, unidentified gunmen opened fire at L Tollen village in Tamenglong around 4am, killing 42-year-old Lhingjangai Singsit. Her husband, 54-year-old Seikhoneh Singsit, and their six-year-old son were also shot.Seikhoneh initially survived the attack but later succumbed to his injuries in hospital, leaving the child injured after the attack that claimed both his parents.Hours later, at around 3pm, another attack took place in Longpi village in Noney district. Julie Singson and Roel Gangte, both in their 30s, were killed while reportedly collecting essential household items. Julie was reportedly pregnant.Another woman who was with the group is reportedly missing and is feared to have been abducted. Both victims were residents of Longpi village.The two attacks took place on a day observed by the Kuki community as ‘Black Day’ to commemorate those killed and displaced during the violence of the 1990s.The L Tollen village authority alleged that cadres of the NSCN (IM) and ZUF (K) were behind the attack.“While we are still bearing the deep scars of the 1993 ethnic persecution of the Kuki people under the leadership of NSCN (IM), this inhumane act has once again opened our old wounds,” it said.“This is not an isolated incident. It is a systematic and deliberate attempt to terrorize, uproot, and ethnically cleanse the Kuki-Zo villagers from our ancestral lands to fulfill their Greater Nagalim agenda. The L Tollen village authority considers this act as a blatant act of terrorism against innocent civilians and a grave violation of human rights,” the organisation said.It demanded the deployment of adequate central forces in L Tollen and adjoining Kuki villages and the arrest of those responsible.The office of the western village volunteers, Jiribam, Tamenglong and Noney, also alleged that NSCN (IM) and ZUF-K cadres carried out the Longpi attack. It said the attackers advanced towards the village centre but were driven back after an exchange of fire with the volunteers.The Kuki Inpi Jiri, Tamenglong and Noney (JTN) has given the state government 24 hours to take concrete action and announced a 24-hour economic blockade. It warned that an indefinite shutdown would follow if its demands were not met.The organisation also expressed concern that the L Tollen attack took place only a few hundred metres from a CSF deployment.Chief minister Y Khemchand Singh expressed deep anguish over the killings, saying that violence against innocent civilians is a cowardly act and unacceptable.The ethnic conflict that erupted in May 2023 between the valley-based Meitei and the hill-based Kuki communities has claimed at least 306 lives, with 49 individuals remaining missing and thousands left homeless.(With agency inputs)Stay updated with the latest Imphal news. Download the TOI App.