Fierce gun battles reported from 2 Manipur districts

Imphal: Heavy exchanges of fire took place between security forces and unknown armed assailants in different places of Imphal East and Kangpokpi districts on Friday, defence officials said.

There were reports said that at least two people, including a woman, were injured in the firing but official confirmation was awaited.

Defence sources said that a group of armed assailants sneaked into the Yaingangpokpi (YKPI) area in Imphal East district towards the hill side on Friday afternoon.

"The assailants fired from automatic weapons towards Urangpat and Gwaltabi villages. Security forces deployed in these vacant villages responded in a calibrated manner to avoid any collateral damage. Large group of women were part of the mobs at YKPI and Seijang (both in Imphal East district) areas preventing movement of additional security forces into the area," the sources said.

A defence PRO said that they would share further information of the encounters with the media after collecting the details from the two districts.

Friday's gun battles comes a day after two soldiers were injured when armed miscreants fired at them at North Boljang in Imphal West district while an INSAS Light Machine Gun and a highly-explosive mortar bomb were recovered in Imphal East and Imphal West districts, respectively, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Army, Assam Rifles and various other central and state security forces have been continuing combing operations in different parts of the state. Search operations were also conducted to recover the arms and ammunition from the attackers and arrest those involved in violence.