Security forces have warned chiefs of Kuki-Zo villages in Wakan under Kangpokpi district of Manipur against creating disturbance following the “firing incident” on Friday morning amid the government’s efforts to restore peace by ensuring the surrender of looted and illegal arms in the state.

Reports from Imphal on Friday said that suspected Kuki-Zo militants had fired at a Meitei temple in Kongba Maru Laipham from the adjoining hills in Kangpokpi, triggering protests and concern in Meitei-majority Imphal.

A Kuki-Zo organisation has denied the reports.

A police statement on Saturday said the security forces launched combing operations in Wakan Ridge and Mark Hills Ridge following the firing incident.

The police also said the security forces summoned the leaders of the “Kuki Inpi-Saikul and village chiefs of Kuki villages in and around Wakan area” and “were sternly warned to stay away from causing disturbances in the area” or else “severe action will be taken if such incidents repeat”.

Kuki Inpi is the apex Kuki organisation in Manipur.

Efforts are under way to identify the culprits and arrest them at the earliest, the statement said, adding that area domination “will continue further to ensure peace and tranquility in the area”.

Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Meghachandra Singh on Saturday urged governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla “to ensure the seizure of illegal arms or weapons used by the KNF(P) in attacking the innocent people who went for worshipping ancient deity at Kongba Maru of Khundrakpam Assembly Constituency in Imphal East District yesterday”.

Singh said he believed the seizure of weapons used in Friday’s firing would instil “more confidence” into the peace efforts launched by the governor who on Friday extended the deadline for voluntary surrender of looted and illegally-held arms and ammunition till March 6.

Reports suggest that out of the over 6,000 arms looted from police armouries, over 4,100 had been recovered since May 31, 2023, including around 700 between February 20 and 28 this year following Bhalla’s appeal for surrender of arms. Of these 700 arms, 246 were handed over by the Meitei radical group Arambai Tenggol on Thursday.

The Committee on Tribal Unity, the Kangpokpi-based Kuki-Zo organisation, in a statement on Friday denied reports on the incident at Kongba Maru Wakhan range as “nothing but reaffirmation of the ethno-centric narratives of Meitei supremacists in the valley”. It stressed “the need for the majoritarian Meitei community in the valley... to shunt their habitual lies and concocted narratives which had fuelled and prolonged this hatred and mistrust between the two communities since May 3, 2023”.

The ethnic strife in Manipur has claimed at least 260 lives and displaced 60,000.