Manipur: Militants torch border villages in Kamjong; residents flee into forests

Heavily armed militants attacked several villages in Manipur’s Kamjong district near the India–Myanmar border early on Thursday, 7 May, torching houses and forcing residents to flee, officials said.

According to police, the attackers targeted the Tangkhul Naga villages of Namlee, Wanglee and Choro under the Kasom Khullen police station area at around 4.00 am. Residents of the border settlements reportedly escaped into nearby forests to save themselves.

The villages are situated less than a kilometre from the international border.

Officials said at least one elderly woman sustained injuries while trying to flee during the attack. Villagers claimed that two houses in Namlee, three to four houses in Wanglee, and several houses in Choro — barring a church — were gutted in the blaze.

Security personnel, including teams of the Assam Rifles, later reached the affected villages to assess the situation.

L. Keishing, the MLA from Phungyar, alleged that the attack had been carried out from across the border by Myanmar-based militant outfits — the Kuki National Army (Burma) and the People’s Defence Force (PDF).

“So far, the state had been seeing internal conflicts, but today there has been external aggression. A combined force of Kuki National Army-B and People’s Defence Force attacked four to five border villages at 3.30 am,” Keishing told reporters.

“Several houses have been reduced to ashes, though there have been no fatalities. Two persons, including a woman, remain untraceable. Eyewitnesses said they were taken away by the armed militants,” the Naga People's Front legislator claimed.

Describing the incident as an “external aggression”, the MLA said both the state and Central governments should not remain silent. “There is no presence of Manipur Police in the area,” he alleged.

The Kuki National Army–B, however, has denied any involvement in the arson attacks and rejected the accusations as “false and malicious”. In a statement cited by local news outlet Power Corridors, the group said: “KNA-B debunks the false and malicious reports blaming us for the arson in Namlee, Choro, and Wanglee village of Kamjong district this morning.”

Keishing also accused the Assam Rifles of failing to protect the villages. “Assam Rifles troops visited the villages yesterday, and the attack happened today. Villagers have expressed frustration over the developments,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Tangkhul Aze Katamnao Long (TAKL), also known as the Southern Tangkhul Students’ Union, expressed “extreme urgency and outrage” over the attacks on Tangkhul Naga border villages by alleged Kuki militants operating under the Kuki National Army-Burma.

The student body alleged that around 100 armed KNA-B militants crossed the Indo-Myanmar border into Kamjong district and attacked villages including Namlee, Wanglee, Ashang Khullen and Choro.

It demanded that the state government immediately deploy Manipur Police commandos in the affected villages and sought an explanation regarding the alleged security lapse that allowed nearly 100 armed militants to cross the international boundary undetected.

With PTI inputs