Two districts of Manipur remained tense on Friday (June 20, 2025), a day after unknown gunmen injured a Meitei farmer and a Kuki woman was shot dead later.
A shutdown was observed across the Churachandpur district, dominated by the Kuki-Zo people, to protest the woman’s killing. She was identified as Hoikholhing Haokip, the wife of the chief of Langchingmanbi village adjoining the Bishnupur district, where the Meitei farmer was attacked.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum had called the shutdown, demanding “immediate action against those responsible for this atrocity, concrete steps from the Centre to ensure the protection of tribal lives and territory, and an independent investigation into the repeated buffer zone violations.”
The people of Bishnupur, one of the five districts comprising the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley, continued to block a highway leading to the Churachandpur district. They demanded the arrest of the assailants of farmer Ningthoujam Biren Singh, who was shot in his left arm on Thursday.
Earlier, the Manipur Police said the security forces came under fire from unknown armed miscreants after the farmer was shot in Bishnupur’s Phubala area. “...the forces retaliated accordingly. During the crossfire, one woman from Langchingmanbi village was found dead with a bullet injury,” it said.
