Fresh clashes in Manipur leave five dead

FRESH clashes in India's strife-addled northeast killed at least five people on Saturday (7), a local government official said, hours after a rocket bombardment prompted authorities to shut schools.

Manipur state has been rocked by periodic violence for more than a year between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community.

The conflict has simmered since then, splitting previously cohabitating communities along ethnic lines.

Another round of clashes killed five people in Jiribam district, sitting on India's border with war-torn Myanmar.

"From morning, there has been fighting between the two communities in Jiribam. We have recovered five bodies and we are awaiting further details," said a local government official, who declined to be identified.

One person was shot dead while sleeping and another four "armed persons" were killed in a "subsequent exchange of fire", the Press Trust of India reported.

Saturday's violence comes after the deaths of two other people over the past week in separate attacks.

Schools were ordered shut after a rocket attack by insurgents the previous day killed a 78-year-old man and wounded six others.

Officers responding to the attack "were fired upon by suspected Kuki militants but the police team retaliated robustly and repelled the attack", a police statement said.

Local media reports said the elderly man was killed when a rocket hit the residence of the late Mairenbam Koireng Singh, a former chief minister of Manipur.

The Indian Express newspaper, citing an unnamed security source, said that the rockets appeared to be "improvised projectiles" made using "galvanised iron pipes attached to explosives".

Friday's (6) attack also came days after insurgents used drones to drop explosives in what police called a "significant escalation" of violence in the state.

A 31-year-old woman was killed and six others were wounded in that incident.

Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.

Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

(AFP)