Guwahati
A teenager was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Manipur’s Bishnupur district in the wee hours of Friday. The incident happened hours after unidentified gunmen shot dead a woman outside a school in the State’s Imphal West district on Thursday, just a day after schools for Classes 1 to 8 reopened after a gap of two months.
In separate incidents earlier, heavy armed militants from either side of the ethnic divide have been targeting security forces and civilians.
In the latest incident, the police said, gunmen fired indiscriminately at Phoubakchao locality during which the teenager, who was hurrying to take cover, was hit by a bullet. Angry locals, a majority of them women, hit the streets in Moirang to vent out their anger against the firing.
The police said the firing between two groups of armed men was first reported in Awang Leikei and Kangwai in Churandpur district near Phoubakchao around 1.30am. Intermittent firing started again from 11.30am after a few hours of lull.
While schools have reopened, attendance has been thin. The killing of the woman, who had gone near the school on some work but was not connected with it, further raised doubts on the safety of the school children, their parents and all other stakeholders.
More than 120 persons have lost their lives since the violence first erupted on May 3.
Violence was also reported from Laitumkhrah in the early hours on Friday after a fight broke out between two groups and quickly escalated with a mob setting a police car on fire. The two groups even pelted stones at each other and the police station where they had gone to lodge FIRs against each other.
An investigation has been launched to find out the reason behind the flare up.
