The bodies, with many gunshot wounds, were discovered in a village in the northeastern state’s Tengnoupal district.
At least 13 people were killed in a big fight between two unknown armed groups in Manipur, a state in India. The police found their bodies on Monday in a village in the Tengnoupal district, where a large gunfight happened.
The police official from the state capital, Imphal, said they can’t immediately identify the dead or which group they belong to. The official mentioned that the weapons might have been taken after they were killed.
These killings happened seven months after clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities over government benefits and quotas. Since May 3, sporadic violence in the state has killed at least 180 people and forced many others to leave their homes.
The trouble began after a court told the government to think about giving the same benefits to the Meitei community as the Kuki-Zo people. The Meiteis are mostly Hindus and live in and around Imphal, while the Kuki-Zo, who are mostly Christians, live in the hill districts nearby.
These tribal communities make up about 40 percent of the state’s population, which is around 3.5 million people. The tensions in the state, which is next to Myanmar, are seen as a failure by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the ruling party in the state.
Modi didn’t talk about the violence in Manipur publicly for more than two months until videos in July showed two women being mistreated by a mob, causing anger across the country.
