After drones, improvised rockets shake Manipur, 1 dead

An elderly man was killed and five others, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured on Friday after a rocket launched by suspected militants exploded in Manipur’s Bishnupur district, PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying. This comes days after the use of drones to drop crude bombs on villages in Imphal West began in which two people were killed and several people were injured.

The rocket landed inside the compound of a house belonging to former Chief Minister Mairembam Koireng, in the Moirang area. It appeared to be an improvised weapon, according to the news agency. “The elderly man was preparing for some religious rituals in the compound when the bomb exploded,” PTI quoted the official as saying. “He died on the spot.” The man was from the Meitei community, NDTV reported. Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May 2023.

At least 226 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes, Chief Minister N Biren Singh told the Assembly on August 2. The rocket fell around 100 metres away from the Indian National Army War Museum in Moirang, which is dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, NDTV reported.

Moirang also happens to be the place where Lieutenant Colonel Shaukat Ali of the Indian National Army hoisted the tricolour for the first time on Indian soil in 1944. The museum was likely the target of the rocket attack, NDTV reported, quoting unidentified persons.