An elderly man was killed and six others, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured on Friday after a rocket launched by suspected militants exploded in Manipur’s Bishnupur district.
The rocket landed inside the compound of a house belonging to former Chief Minister Mairembam Koireng, in the Moirang area, PTI reported.
“The elderly man was preparing for some religious rituals in the compound when the bomb exploded,” the news agency quoted the official as saying. “He died on the spot.”
The man who died, RK Rabei, was from the Meitei community, NDTV reported.
Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May 2023. At least 226 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes, Chief Minister N Biren Singh told the state Assembly on August 2.
The rocket fell around 100 metres away from the Indian National Army War Museum in Moirang, which is dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, NDTV reported.
Moirang also happens to be the place where Lieutenant Colonel Shaukat Ali of the Indian National Army hoisted the tricolour for the first time on Indian soil in 1944.
The museum was likely the target of the rocket attack, NDTV reported quoting unidentified persons.
Earlier on Friday, another rocket had been fired towards the residential area of Tronglaobi, around 45 kilometres from the state capital Imphal, reported PTI.
The state government ordered the closure of all schools in Manipur till Saturday “in view of the unrest and prevailing situation in the state and keeping in mind the safety of the students and teachers”.
The rocket attacks came three days after Singh condemned suspected militants for targeting security forces and civilians with drones. He said that the state government would “take up necessary response to fight such forms of terrorism”.
The chief minister’s statement came after two persons were killed and several others injured in two separate attacks this week by suspected Kuki militants in Imphal West district.
The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, an umbrella organisation of six Meitei groups, condemned Friday’s rocket attacks.
“For the past 15 months, the people of the state and the valley have been demanding the withdrawal of central forces due to their incompetence,” said committee spokesperson Khuraijam Athouba in a post on X. “Now, it seems that there is a deliberate evasion or disregard for the situation, allowing the attackers to persist with their assaults.”
Athouba claimed that the rocket attack in Moirang had killed a second person, whom he described as an “assistant head Brahman”.