Drone bombs jolt Manipur again, large no. of Meitei's houses and properties destroyed

Imphal: A large number of houses and properties were destroyed in drone-assisted bomb attacks targeting the Meitei population at Tronglaobi and other places in Bishnupur district in Manipur on Friday, police said. No one was injured.

The attacks were allegedly carried out by suspected Kuki militants.

According to villagers, who fled the area, the attacks were coming from Churachandpur district.

The villagers said all the people living in the foothills had fled as Kuki militants were using military-grade drones equipped with bombs. No one was injured, as there were no people in the vicinity of the blasts.

It is not possible to stay in the villages as the militants were using rocket launchers and snipers to attack civilians, the villagers said.

The attacks came in the backdrop of two days of aerial drone attacks in Imphal West by Kuki militants, which led to the death of two persons and the injuries of 11 persons. Most of the camps of the Indian Reserve Battalion were also destroyed in the aerial bombing.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of Manipur's Meitei civil society, has called for forming a human chain to denounce the attack.

COCOMI demanded the declaration of Kuki militants as terrorists. It decried the inaction of 60,000 central security forces stationed in the state for their inability to nab the militants.

Civil society members have also condemned the misuse of ambulances by Kuki militants, as it was found that Kuki militants were attacking civilians using ambulances.