Three people were killed in a gunfight between armed Kuki-Zo 'village volunteers' and members of a Kuki insurgent group in Manipur's Tengnoupal district on Friday morning, security sources said, though Manipur police are yet to recover any bodies. The gunfight took place in the Pallel region in Manipur's Tengnoupal district, around 45 kilometres from state capital Imphal, where the state legislative assembly was in session. Superintendent of Police, Tengnoupal, Rahul Gupta said police went to the site around 9:30 am Friday morning after they received reports of a gunfight in the area and found that a house had been burnt down. Teams comprising the police, Assam Rifles and the Border Security Force were conducting searches in the area but had not recovered any bodies as of 10:00 pm, he said. Security sources said the gunfight began after the armed Kuki villagers attacked the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) - one of the groups under the umbrella United People's Front, a signatory in the tripartite Suspension of Operation agreement between Kuki insurgent groups and the state and central governments - in the area. There were internal tensions between the parties over control over 'taxation' and trade routes in the area, sources said, adding that of the three fatalities, two were armed villagers and one was from UKLF cadre, while the burnt house belonged to UKLF chief S S Haokip. An unsigned statement - purportedly by the UKLF - also claimed that the insurgent group had been attacked by members from the same community in Pallel. It alleged that the attackers were "collaborating with Meiteis". This incident comes at a time when violence between Meiteis and Kukis has come down, with the last major flare up being in Jiribam in June.
