Imphal, Nov. 14: Militants last night lobbed two hand grenades at the houses of an engineer and the owner-cum-managing director of Imphal Hospital, ostensibly as a reminder to pay up or face the consequences.

On spotting the grenades, with the ‘pins’ intact, in the courtyards of PWD executive engineer Khundrakpam Mohori’s house at Khurai Chaithabi Leikai in Imphal East and that of Salam Maipak at Kwakeikhthel in Imphal West around 5am today, their families informed police.

The police seized the two hand grenades this morning. They said the grenades were meant as a warning and not intended to explode as the pins, the triggering mechanisms, had not been removed.

No group has claimed responsibility but the police suspect that the grenades could be linked to monetary demands by one of the militant groups.

Elsewhere, the search to trace executive engineer Thangjam Tomalchand and assistant engineer Leitanthem Mangi Singh of the power department continued.

An unidentified caller representing the United People’s Party of Kangleipak told Mangi Singh’s family today that the duo were abducted not for ransom but to facilitate the outfit’s “investigation” into a Rs 15-crore scam in the electricity department.

Sit-in

Residents of Irilbung and neighbouring villages today staged a sit-in at Irilbung bazaar to appeal to a faction of the Peoples United Liberation Front to withdraw threats issued to two shopkeepers of the area.

In a statement on Wednesday, the group had accused Sanasam Raghumani and his younger brother Sanasam Inaomacha of being “informers” of security forces and threatened them with severe punishment.

Residents of Irilbung maintained that the brothers were innocent.

The duo own a shop each at Irilbung market.

Encounter: Troops of the Assam Rifles shot dead two unidentified militants in an encounter along the Indo-Myanmar border in Chandel district early this morning.

The police said the youths were gunned down near border pillar 81, 13km to the northeast of Moreh.

The troops recovered an M-16 rifle with a magazine and 12 live rounds, a 9mm pistol with four live rounds and a shell of a rocket-propelled grenade.

The police are yet to ascertain the groups they belonged to.