A CRPF constable from Bihar was killed and two Manipur cops and an unidentified civilian were wounded in an ambush by suspected militants in Jiribam district, the conflict-ridden state’s new flashpoint bordering south Assam.
CM N Biren Singh blamed the attack, the second one targeting security forces in just over a month, on an “armed group suspected to be Kuki militants”. The attack at Morbung village of the district took place when a joint CRPF and Manipur Police team was en route to the area for an operation.
The slain CRPF constable, 43-year-old Ajay Kumar Jha of Madhubani district, was felled by a bullet to his forehead, police said. He was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital. The wounded cops are said to be out of danger while the civilian is receiving treatment at a hospital in Assam’s Silchar.
The ambush was the second such attack on security forces in Manipur in just over a month. On June 10, suspected militants targeted the advance security convoy of CM Biren Singh in Kangpokpi district, injuring a policeman.
At Morbung, the joint patrol team was bombarded by militants strategically positioned at five to six locations. The security personnel retaliated and the gunfight continued until noon, after which the militants moved to the forested hills in the vicinity. Jha, who was at the wheel of the vehicle ferrying the team, was apparently the first to be struck by a bullet.
Additional security forces have been dispatched to Morbung for a combing operation to flush out the suspected militants. CM Biren Singh wrote on X, “I strongly condemn the killing of a CRPF jawan... His supreme sacrifice in the line of duty shall not go in vain.”
“The sustained and coordinated attacks on the Kuki Zo people in the Jiribam region represent a ruthless attempt to further ethnic persecution... This has severely disrupted the lives, safety, and security of the Kuki-Zo community. Hundreds of villagers have been compelled to flee their homes in Jiribam due to ongoing oppression by Meitei armed groups, with many now displaced in relief camps,” it said.
Kukis also criticised what it described as “a deliberate failure of the CRPF to maintain neutrality”.
