MUMBAI (AFP) – Fresh clashes in India’s northeast killed at least five people yesterday, a 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.
Another round of clashes killed five people in Jiribam district, sitting on India’s border with Myanmar.
“From morning, there has been fighting in Jiribam. We have recovered five bodies and we are awaiting further details,” a government official, who declined to be identified, told AFP. 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. Yesterday’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 the previous day killed a 78-year-old man and wounded six others.
A government notice said all schools in the state were closed yesterday.
Officers responding to the attack “were fired upon by suspected militants but the police team retaliated robustly and repelled the attack”, a police statement said.
