GUWAHATI: Three people were killed and houses set ablaze in fresh violence in India’s Manipur, police officials said late on Friday, as sporadic violence and killings continue in the remote north-eastern state.

The three people killed on Thursday night belonged to the majority Metei community in the state’s Bishnupur district, a police spokesperson said.

The months-long outbreak of violence began on May 3 after a court ordered the state to consider extending to the majority Meitei population special economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education that up to now have been reserved for the tribal Kuki people.

A spokesperson for a Kuki civil society group said it did not have an immediate comment on the latest killings.

Over 180 people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes, since the violence started in Manipur, a state of 3.2 million that borders Myanmar.

On May 3, members of the hill tribes including Kuki launched a protest against the possible extension of their benefits to the dominant Meiteis. Meiteis account for half of Manipur’s population and extending limited affirmative action quotas to them would mean they would get a share in education and jobs reserved for Kukis.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2023