‘No one to protect us’: In Manipur, civilians easy targets as armed groups step up violence

The Sunday church service had just ended in the hill-top village of Longpi in Manipur’s Noney district on the afternoon of September 13. Longpi is home to about 320 Kuki residents, village officials said. A group of five women and two men were on their way to gather some rice and wash some clothes when a group of 45-50 militants attacked the village.

“They were walking from one part of the village to another when they came under attack,” David Gangte, the son of Longpi village chief and a primary school government teacher at the village, told Scroll. Gangte said the group found themselves cornered in a narrow lane when the militants opened fire with “automatic weapons”.