Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel died in the face of militant attack in Manipur

Two CRPF personnel were killed and two injured when militants launched an attack on an IRBn camp in Manipur's Bishnupur district, firing from hilltops and lobbing bombs in the latest incident of violence plaguing the strife-torn state.

Imphal: Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and the two others got injured in a militant attack on the India Reserve Battalion (IRBn) camp in Manipur's Bishnupur district early Saturday morning, as per the state police officials.

The militants opened indiscriminate fire from hilltops targeting the IRBn camp at Naranseina in the Moirang police station area around 12:30 a.m. The firing continued for nearly two hours until time when the militants launched their second attack and lobbed bombs at the camp. One of them exploded near the outpost of the CRPF's 128th battalion.

The inspector N.Sarkar and the head constable Arup Saini were killed in the attack. Apart from CRPF inspector, Jadav Das and constable, Aftab Hussain were also wounded in the blast when the second bomb exploded. CRPF men had been involved in the protection of the IRBn camp.

"The militants started firing from the hill tops aiming at their position shooting bombs of which one hit the camp," said a senior Police officer.

Security forces are, right now, involved in a massive search campaign to arrest those who are behind today’s attack in the state that has been through a long period of unrest.

There was an attack during the time when Manipur is the state where an ongoing general election is being held, where polling has also started in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur.

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The ethnic conflict in Manipur has been going on since May this year between the major Meitei and Kuki tribal communities who have been implicating in ethnic violence after the issue of Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community has been brought up by the high court. The storyline has claimed more than 200 lives and relocated at least 50,000 people up to now.

Even the BJP party in the center and that in the state has been accused of not being able to halt the rising violence in the state. Despite continuous demand from opposition parties and civil organisations for the resignation of the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, he still manages to remain on the chair.