New Delhi: Indicating a fresh development along India-Myanmar border, a news report from Imphal has claimed that at least one militant from the northeastern state’s valley areas had died, and five others injured, in a bomb attack by the pro-democracy People’s Defence Force (PDF) this past November 22.The report in the Imphal Free Press also said that on the same day, another valley-based (Meitei) underground outfit “reportedly exchanged a gunfight with PDF at Thanan in Myanmar around noon.”Since October end, Myanmar’s pro-democracy militias, in joint operations, have succeeded in snatching swathes of land close to the Indian border from that country’s military. The heavy fighting has led to more refugees entering the north-eastern state of Mizoram. The Imphal Free Press report indicates that Manipur’s valley-based armed groups (belonging to the Meitei community) are also engaging with Myanmar’s militia close to the Indian border. In the recent violence that broke out in Manipur, the Indian government has accused Myanmar-based armed groups of playing a role in it. Myanmar’s Chin community which resides along the Indian border shares common ethnicity with Manipur’s Kuki community which was in a violence clash with the Meiteis since this past May. The Imphal Free Press report, quoting “sources”, identified the name of the dead militant as 37-year-old Naoram Naocha alias Kohe, son of N. Kala who is a resident of the Top Mathak locality of Yaripok in Thoubal district. “Naocha was earlier arrested by security forces and had been in Guwahati jail. He rejoined the group after completing his jail time,” the report added.Naocha was said to have been killed by the Myanmar rebel forces at Min Thar in that country’s Sagaing region, “between border pillar no 90-91 of Myanmar around 4 am on November 22.” The border pillar is along Manipur’s Kamjong district, about 120 kms from the state capital Imphal.The report also said, “Superintendent of Police of Kamjong, P. Manjit, and OC Kasom Khullen Marchang Wungmahai and some villagers went across the (Myanmar) border to follow up the incident from Namlee side. There have been no latest reports of the team led by SP returning back to the border till late evening on Wednesday (November 22). Namlee village in Maniour’s Kamjong district is close to the border pillars 90-91. The report said villagers heard “sounds of numerous bomb explosions across the border after the incident (that killed Naomram Naocha).” The Wire tried contacting the SP office at Kamjong but could not get a response.Mob storms hospital Meanwhile, another news report has stated that a Myanmarese man lost his life after undergoing treatment at Imphal’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) this November 23. On getting to know that the man had been admitted in the hospital for treatment, a mob belonging to the Meitei community stormed into the compound of the government-run hospital on November 23, leading the state police to lob teargas at them, said the Indian Express.“Police said the man, identified as Khoantum, a resident of Thanan, in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, died at the hospital on Thursday afternoon of bullet injuries that he suffered during the fighting in Myanmar,” the news report said. “The mob had gathered at JNIMS due to a rumour that the man was a militant,” it added. The Myanmarese man was given first aid by the Assam Rifles that man the border, before being handedm over to the state police at around 3.55 am on November 23. “After that, they would have taken him to Imphal for further treatment,” a security official told Indian Express. He then succumbed to his injuries.Within Manipur, the Community on Tribal Unity (CoTU) belonging to the Kuki community has reimposed the blockade of the National Highways 2 and 37 that pass by the state’s Kangpokpi district, located about 45 kms from Imphal. CoTU has accused the government of not ensuring law and order in the Kuki-dominated areas. The blockade of these highways typically chokes the supply of essentials to the valley areas, the home to the Meitei community, which swells the animosity between the two clashing communities.
