Manipur women working in fields shot, one killed

GUWAHATI: Within 48 hours of a tribal woman, a mother of three, being set on fire by armed miscreants in Manipur’s Jiribam district on Thursday evening, another woman was gunned down by suspected hillock militants in Bishnupur district on Saturday.
The woman was working with other farmers while harvesting paddy when suspected militants opened fire from the hill areas bordering the district border with Churachandpur, police sources said.
According to them, unknown men, suspected to be militants, shot at Sapam Sofia (27) from a distance of just 100 meters in Bishnupur’s Saiton village. She succumbed to the bullet wound immediately, police said.
The incident took place around 11am on Saturday when several other farmers had a narrow escape. Sofia’s body remained there before village volunteers collected it for fear of further attacks. Speaking to TOI, a senior police officer confirmed that there were around 10 to 20 women engaged in paddy harvesting.
In the northeast, the winter harvest starts from the end of October.
“The paddy field, where the incident took place, is very close to forest areas. There are also tribal settlements some distance away. The miscreants fired at the farmers and fled, taking advantage of the forest areas, along the district border with Churachandpur. the official said.
Police have not yet identified the attackers but indicated that the violence was aimed at turning Manipur into a disturbed area again. Police personnel and other central security forces rushed to the spot and started retaliatory fire. However, no further casualties were reported from either side.
Earlier, on Thursday evening, a 31-year-old woman was set on fire after she was allegedly attacked and raped. The Jiribam police station registered a case on an FIR filed by the victim’s husband citing violations, including rape and murder, based on racial, communal and gender grounds and several other parts of the BNS.
The attackers are believed to have come from the valley and were armed with deadly weapons. They attacked the village of Zairawn and burned down seventeen homes after indiscriminate gunfire.