Three pastors were gunned down Wednesday (May 13) in India’s restive northeastern Manipur state, police and officials said, the latest flare-up in a region gripped by ethnic conflict.
Manipur has seen periodic clashes for nearly three years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki minority, in which more than 250 people have been killed.
The pastors belonged to the Kuki community but the identity of the gunmen was not immediately known.
“Three Kuki pastors were killed today morning but the identity of the perpetrators is unknown so far,” a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.
Four others were wounded, Manipur chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said in a statement.
“I vehemently condemn the dastardly terror act… which resulted in the death of three innocent civilians,” he said.
Kuki groups have blamed an armed faction said to represent the interests of the Naga tribe, another major community in the state.
Like the Kukis, the Nagas are primarily Christian, but tensions between the two groups have escalated in recent months, signalling a widening of the conflict.
The Kuki Inpi, the community’s apex body, condemned the killings as “barbaric”.
The Nagas and the Kukis have competing claims of their respective ethnic homelands in the hills of Manipur, leading to frequent conflicts.
In 1993, clashes between the two groups erupted into widespread ethnic violence that killed hundreds and displaced entire villages.
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