Indian police in troubled northeastern Manipur state on Monday battled with Kuki minority forces after their station was attacked, with at least 10 people killed, a district official said.
Kuldip Singh, the security adviser to the Manipur government, reported a “heavy” firefight lasting around 45 minutes, saying weapons seized from the dead attackers include assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Troops have been sent to the area to reinforce the security forces.
A Kuki community group, the Kuki-Zo Council, said 11 members had been killed while condemning in the “strongest terms the violence” and calling for a “total shutdown” on Tuesday.
The violence comes after the burned corpse of a Kuki woman was found in the district last week, sparking fury.
Those killed come from the Hmar people, a smaller group within the Kuki.
At least 200 people have since been killed since the conflict began, and communities have splintered into rival groups across swaths of the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar.
After months of relative calm, an uptick in violence in September killed at least 11 people, including insurgents reportedly firing rockets and dropping bombs with drones.
Manipur is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
