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Reports are also emerging of residents fleeing some villages in the Imphal valley.

Imphal:

The cycle of violence in Manipur continued on Tuesday with two people dying and at least five – including a top BJP youth leader from the state – getting injured in fresh firing between two groups. 

Police sources said the exchange of fire broke out at Koutruk village in Imphal West district and that the number of deaths is likely to go up. At least one person is also said to be missing. 

Manoharmayum Barish Sharma, a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha – the youth wing of the BJP – sustained injuries in the firing and has been rushed to a hospital. 

The sources said the gunfight erupted between village volunteers of two communities on the border of the Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts. There are also reports of residents fleeing the Kadangband, Koutruk and Kangchup villages in the Imphal valley following the fresh violence.

Tuesday’s incident comes just two days after a village defence volunteer was killed and four people were injured in a gunfight between two armed groups in an area between state capital Imphal and Kangpokpi district.

Over 180 people have lost their lives and more than 3,000 have been injured in the violence in Manipur, which began on May 3 last year, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.

Thousands have also been displaced and the opposition has been questioning why the violence has gone on for over eight months despite at least 60,000 personnel from the central security forces being posted in the state.