Bodies of two Meitei men recovered in Manipur's Jiribam

Imphal: Bodies of two elderly men belonging to the Meitei community were recovered on Tuesday morning in Manipur's Jiribam district where a gunfight between suspected militants and security forces broke out a day before, police said.

Operations are underway to trace three women and three children, who have been reported missing since the violence erupted in Jiribam on Monday, IGP (operations) I K Muivah said.

The bodies of the two men - Laishram Balen and Maibam Kesho - were detected in debris during a search operation in Jakuradhor Karong area where a few shops were set on fire by suspected militants on Monday, another senior officer said.

"The two elderly men belonging to the Meitei community died after the insurgents torched a few shops in Jakuradhor Karong area," he said.

The Jiribam district administration imposed prohibitory orders to avoid any untoward incident in the area, the officer said.

A shutdown has been observed since 5 am on Tuesday in Kuki-Zo majority areas in the hills to protest against killing of suspected insurgents in the gunfight with security personnel, another police officer said.

The Kuki-Zo Council called for a total shutdown in the hill areas of the state from 5 am to 6 pm on Tuesday to express their "collective grief and solidarity who were brutally shot dead".

The police had said 10 suspected militants were killed in the fierce gunfight with security forces on Monday after insurgents in camouflage uniforms, armed with sophisticated weapons, fired indiscriminately at a police station and an adjacent CRPF camp in Jiribam district. However, a senior officer had put the toll at 11.

Two CRPF personnel also sustained injuries during the heavy exchange of fire at Borobekra, and the condition of one of them was stated to be critical, another officer said.

The situation in Jiribam remained calm but tense on Tuesday morning with policemen patrolling at vulnerable points, he said.

Following the incident, fresh violence was reported from multiple places in Imphal Valley where armed groups from the two warring sides engaged in exchanges of fire, the state police said.

Locals and security forces recovered several improvised mortar shells in two villages of Imphal West district this morning, another officer said.

Operations were continuing to flush out militants, and reinforcement teams, consisting of Assam Rifles, and CRPF, have been deployed in disturbed areas, he added.