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The attack was carried out around 10 am along National Highway-202 between Leingangching and TS Kasom in an area under Litan Police Station in Ukhrul district. The convoy was heading towards the Ukhrul district headquarters. The driver was identified as Nitish Kumar, 57, from West Bengal’s Hooghly district. The injured police constable was 35-year-old Disingam Maringmei from Imphal West district.

According to an official in Ukhrul, a set of trucks carrying goods such as rice and fuel had been stranded in Imphal East’s Yaingangpokpi for the last couple of days because of the enforcement of a blockade by Kuki groups preventing their onward movement amid heightened tensions in Manipur’s hill areas between the Naga and Kuki-Zo communities.

“On Friday, the RAF was brought in and used teargas to disperse the crowd. From there, the trucks moved forward with security cover from the police and BSF. However, during this movement, the convoy was ambushed,” said the official.

Calling the incident an “ambush carried on goods vehicle by unknown armed miscreants”, Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh issued a condemnatory statement.

“Ambushing a goods vehicle and taking the life of a driver, who plays a crucial role in ensuring the uninterrupted supply of essential items across the state, is one of the most cowardly acts and is intended to further aggravate the tense situation prevailing in the area. The ambush seemed to be carried out by vested interest groups with ill motives to derail the initiatives of the state government to restore peace and normalcy in the state,” the CM said.

The state has been on the boil since May 13, when three church leaders from the Thadou Baptist Association were killed in an ambush while travelling in Kangpokpi district. Tensions escalated immediately afterwards, when both Kuki and Naga groups began abducting villagers from the other community and holding them hostage. That situation continues to remain volatile, with six Naga men remaining missing since they were abducted, and 14 Kuki men continuing to be held hostage.

The general area in which Friday’s incident took place is where the Naga-Kuki tensions in Manipur began simmering since February this year, with a series of violent confrontations between local Tangkhul Nagas and Kukis. While Ukhrul is a Tangkhul Naga-majority district, there is a set of Kuki villages in the area. In February last year, two civilians were killed along the same highway after unknown armed miscreants carried out a similar ambush on civilian vehicles heading towards Ukhrul.