GUWAHATI: Two village volunteers were killed and at least seven others wounded in gunfights along Manipurs Bishnupur-Churachandpur border while unidentified assailants fired at a group of farmers working in the fields at adjoining Naranseina on Tuesday, rekindling the embers of the ethnic conflict just when a semblance of calm seemed to have descended.The victims were identified as Laibujam Inao, who died in an Imphal hospital of bullet wounds suffered in fighting at Naranseina Maning Loubuk in Bishnupur.The second casualty was Jangminlen Gangte, fatally wounded in a clash at Songdo village ofChurachandpur district.The attack on farmers at Naranseina village left two of them wounded.
Security officials also reported firing in other locations of Bishnupur.Five farm groups of the state, collectively called Loumee Shinmee Apun Lup, blamed the state government for them being targeted.
Its president Mutum Churamani said a large portion of paddy fields were still unsafe, although farmers had no option but to return to work after over three months of violence eating into the crop season.On Monday, police arrested four people linked to three militant outfits a member each of the NSCN(IM) and Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), and two overground workers of the Kangleipak Communist Party (Lamyanba Khuman faction) in Imphal East and Bishnupur districts.
Six firearms, five cartridges and two explosives were seized during the operations.Watch"Both state and union governments failed to address Manipur issue," CPI general secretary D.
Raja