A gunfight reportedly broke out between two armed groups in Manipur's Imphal East district on Wednesday morning, police said.

Armed men fired from the hilltops of Kangpokpi district, targeting the Sinam Kom village. Armed 'village volunteers' deployed at the foothills retaliated, leading to the gunfight, they said. Additional security forces were deployed in the area following the incident, they added. No injuries have been reported so far, police said.

On Tuesday night, a gunfight broke out between armed men and security forces at Thamnapokpi and nearby Uyok Ching in Imphal East, police said.

More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur since May last year.

Indeed, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh on Wednesday took pains to point out that the state was on the right trajectory of development and good governance before violence broke out on 3 May 2023, and had hosted multiple international and national events, including G-20 meetings, Miss India contests, and a tri-nation football tournament.

Speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of Good Governance Day held at the chief minister’s secretariat, Singh lauded government officials, including the chief secretary, for working towards achieving the government’s objective of good governance. Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee's birthday was declared as ‘Good Governance Day’ in 2014 under the first Modi government.

Singh also said the state needs immediate peace and appealed to the two embattled communities to reach an understanding.

Side by side, he also asserted that the BJP can save the northeastern state as it believes in the idea of living together. "What is happening in Manipur today has many reasons. Today, those who have been trying to divide the state are asking what the government is doing...they are hungry for power," Singh said.

The chief minister said several initiatives such as 'Meeyamgi Numit' (People's Day), which aim to bring people and officials closer, have been rolled out. "We are not against any particular community. The stand of the BJP is clear. We believe in the idea of living together. We have already started to build relations between the police and the people," he said.

Singh said the state government is working hard to meet the requirements of internally displaced people by making committees at several layers of the administration. He also claimed that the administration is providing immediate solutions to the displaced people in education and agriculture.

"We have never committed any wrong. We only wanted to save future generations. The two communities need to be calm. Instead of looking at the past, we need to focus on the upcoming NRC process, capturing biometrics and 1961 as the base year of the Inner Line Permit.

"We will continue our work democratically and constitutionally. This will take time. What we need now is immediate peace and reach an understanding between the two communities which have misunderstood each other," Singh said.

With agency inputs