Two killed and dozens injured as police open fire on mob of protesters in northeast India
Police say it first responded with tear gas to disperse protesting mob
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Your support makes all the difference.At least two people were killed and dozens sustained injuries as police in India's northeastern state of Manipur opened fire to stop a mob of hundreds from storming a police station.
A mob consisting of about 400 people from the Kuki-Zo community attempted to storm the office of the superintendent of police in the tense Churachandpur district on late Thursday, the state police said.
Security officials were "responding appropriately by firing tear gas shells to control the situation", it added on X.
Nearly 200 people have been killed in the notheastern state since the violent conflict between minority Kuki-Zo and majority Meitei communities broke out on 3 May. Churachandpur, home to the Kuki-Zo community, was among the first areas in the state to witness ethnic clashes.
The mob on Thursday stormed the station after the district police ordered the suspension of a Kuki constable for "grave misconduct" after purported images of him with armed men surfaced on social media.
The crowd, demanding the constable be reinstated, attacked the complex that houses the offices of the police chief and set several vehicles on fire as violence and arson spread to the other parts of the city.
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and then "resorted to shooting", an anonymous official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Mobile internet has been suspended in the district in view of the violence, authorities said. The longest-running internet shutdown of 2023 was imposed by Indian authorities in Manipur and lasted over 5,000 hours.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), an apex tribal body, warned district police chief Shivanand Surve, who had issued the suspension order, to leave Churachandpur within the next 24 hours.
"Despite multiple evidence of the Meitei police collaborating with Meitei militants and engaging in violence against tribal communities, no action has been taken against them. In contrast, a Kuki-Zo tribal policeman was swiftly suspended based on a single screengrab,” the ITLF said.
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