GUWAHATI: A suspected militant rocket attack on the residence of former Chief Minister late Mairembam Koireng Singh in Moirang on Friday left one person dead and five others injured.The deceased was identified as 70-year-old RK Rabei, a resident of Pheewangbam Leikei. Police said the injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.The attack occurred around 3:10 pm at the residential compound of the former chief minister in Moirang, Bishnupur district, a Meitei-majority area bordering Kuki-majority Churachandpur district. The rockets were launched from an elevated position in Churachandpur.Police also reported that militants fired several rounds from the hills towards Bishnupur district.”It happened just next to my house. The victims were busy erecting a pandal for an upcoming religious function when they were hit by the splinters of a rocket,” a local resident told TNIE.He added that some concrete structures were damaged in the attack.Meanwhile, locals demanded action against the perpetrators and blocked the police from transporting the body to a hospital for a post-mortem. The locals also vented their ire when state minister L Susindro visited the spot.As of the latest reports, the body remained in an ambulance at a school compound. Earlier, a similar rocket attack damaged two buildings in the Terakhongshangbi area of the same district. However, no casualties were reported. The range of such rockets is over 3 km, the police said.The state government ordered the closure of all schools on September 7 in the aftermath of these incidents. “In view of the unrest and prevailing situation in the state and keeping in mind the safety of the students and teachers, all government schools, government-aided, private and central schools of the state will stay closed on the 7th of September, 2024,” a government order said.The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an Imphal Valley-based Meitei organisation, declared an indefinite “public emergency” (read curfew), claiming that it had no trust left in the state and central governments.Friday’s incidents followed the drone bombing attacks of Sunday and Monday, allegedly carried out by Kuki militants in the Imphal West district. Two people, including a woman, were killed and nine others injured in Sunday’s attack.Meanwhile, thousands of people, mostly students, formed human chains in the five Imphal Valley districts on Friday to register their protest against the drone bombings.The protesters condemned the BJP-led Manipur government’s “timidity” and demanded action against the “Kuki militants.” They said there could be no compromise of Manipur’s territorial and administrative integrity. Notably, the Kuki-Zo tribals are demanding a “separate administration” for the community.The ethnic violence, which first broke out on May 3 last year, left over 225 people dead and around 60,000 others displaced.
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