By IANS
Imphal : At least 10 tribal separatists were killed in a clash between two rival gangs in the restive northeastern state of Manipur, officials said Tuesday.
A police spokesman said heavily armed militants of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) and the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) clashed near village Tangkhul Hundung in Ukhrul district Monday, about 70 km northeast of state capital Imphal.
“The KLA rebels were coming in two jeeps when they were ambushed by suspected NSCN-IM militants resulting in the death of 10 KLA cadres,” Dorji Lahiri, police chief of Ukhrul, told IANS by telephone.
The two jeeps were earlier hijacked by the KLA rebels from a nearby area. A few top KLA leaders were among those killed in the gun battle, the police official said.
“A few of the KLA militants managed to escape,” Lahiri said.
Police reinforcements were unable to reach the spot as heavy landslides blocked the road leading to the village.
The NSCN-IM is a rebel group fighting for a tribal Naga homeland in the adjoining Nagaland state with cadres of the outfit also located in the hill district of Ukhrul. The group has been observing a ceasefire with New Delhi since 1997 and holding peace talks.
The KLA is a group fighting for an independent homeland for the Kuki tribe in Manipur, bordering Myanmar.
The two groups are engaged in a bitter fratricidal clash for territorial supremacy in the area since long with an estimated 500 people of the two tribes killed in gunfights in the past one decade.
Manipur is a hotbed of insurgency with 19-odd separatist groups active with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.
Most of the rebel groups in Manipur have bases in Myanmar from where they carry out their hit-and-run guerrilla strikes in the region.