3 Manipur rebels held for murder, arson

Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday said it has arrested three cadres of Manipur's three proscribed valley-based insurgent groups in separate cases of murder, abduction and arson cases in the state the took place during the peak of the Meitei and Kuki-Zo violence in last two years.

The agency said two of them — Nongthombam Meiraba from Bishnupur district and belonging to United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and Sagolsem Sanatomba @Surchandra Singh @Piba of Thoubal district who is a member of Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) — have been arrested "for their involvement in the brutal killing of a woman and burning and looting of houses by armed militants in Zairawn village in Jiribam district of Manipur in November last year."

While Meiraba was "involved in the actual shooting of the woman, identified as Zosangkim," the other accused, Sanatomba, was part of the team involved in the carnage, NIA stated.

The duo are currently in NIA custody and their remand is till May 17.

The NIA added that another accused, Waikhom Rohit Singh, a cadre of Kangleipak Communist Party-People's War Group faction, who was earlier nabbed by security forces on April 30, is currently in judicial custody after completing his remand with the NIA.

He was arrested in a murder and abduction case relating to the ethnic clashes that took place in the state in 2023.

According to the NIA statement, in November 2023, a CRPF team deployed on naka duty in Kangchup Chingkhong area of Imphal West district had detained a vehicle carrying five persons belonging to one of the two main communities involved in the ethnic clashes in the state.

"A large mob of angry persons belonging to the rival community had then gathered around and forcibly taken away four of the individuals while one had managed to escape. The bodies of three of the four persons were recovered later," the NIA stated.

The NIA, which had taken over the case in Feb 2024, is continuing with the investigation, it added.