Volunteers pursue Kuki militants, destroy poppy plantation

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 10: Village defence volunteers of Tumu-khong Moirangpurel and adjoining Meitei villages pursued Kuki militants up to Molham Kuki village yesterday.
After Kuki militants attacked sand miners at Tumurok River, a little distance away from Tumu- khong on February 6,  the village defence volunteers were struggling to push back the Kuki militants.
But the village defence volunteers once again came under attack from Kuki militants yesterday.
Enraged by the repeated attacks, the village defence volunteers fought back and pursued the retreating Kuki militants up to Molham Kuki village.
Although the Kuki militants fled away, some local made weapons abandoned by the Kuki militants were recovered by the village defence volunteers.
They also came across massive poppy plantation on the hill ranges surrounding Molham Kuki village.
The village defence volunteers destroyed some of the poppy plantations, sources informed.
On February 6, heavily armed Kuki militants came down from the hill of Molham Kuki village toward Tumurok River located in between Nongdam Tang-khul and Tumukhong Meitei village, and fired indiscriminately toward those who were engaged in mining sand.
On hearing the indiscriminate firing, Tumu- khong villagers who were mining sand in the area ran in different directions to save their lives.
Kuki militants fired several rounds of bullets on the vehicles which were left behind by the sand miners, and thus damaged tryes of three  trucks.