Unidentified gunmen ambushed an escorted goods vehicle in Manipur’s Ukhrul district on Friday (May 29, 2026) morning, killing a truck driver from West Bengal and injuring a police constable.

An official from the district administration said the trucks and vehicles of security personnel came under attack between Leingangching and TM Kasom on National Highway 202 that connects Manipur’s capital, Imphal, with Ukhrul town, the headquarters of Ukhrul district.

The area, where the incident happened around 11 a.m., is within the jurisdiction of Litan police station and is Kuki-dominated.

The driver, killed on the spot, was identified as 65-year-old Nitish Das from Hooghly district of West Bengal. His truck was transporting rice for the Food Corporation of India from Imphal to Ukhrul.

The Manipur police constable, who sustained bullet injuries on one of his knees, was identified as Disingam Maringmei, a 34-year-old Naga from Sangaiprou in Imphal West district.

“Personnel of the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, and the State police have been escorting trucks on the Imphal-Ukhrul highway. Shortly before the incident, local protestors blocked roads at Shangkai to prevent the movement of the trucks,” the official said.

Security personnel escorting the trucks fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. The trucks left for Ukrul after the road was cleared, but came under attack 6 km uphill.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the ambush that took place at the very spot where two Naga men, including a retired Indian Army soldier, were killed on April 18.

Cowardly act, says CM

Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh condemned the attack and mourned the death of the truck driver.

“Ambushing a goods vehicle and taking the life of a driver, who plays a crucial role in ensuring the uninterrupted supply of essential items across the State, is one of the most cowardly acts and intends to aggravate the tense situation prevailing in the area,” he said.

He said the ambush seemed to have been carried out by vested interest groups with the “ill motive to derail the government’s initiatives” to restore peace and normalcy in the State.

Praying for the speedy recovery of the police constable, the Chief Minister said that a search and cordon operation was being conducted in nearby areas to nab the culprits.

‘Genuine grievances’

The Litan area has been volatile since February 7, when an assault case snowballed into a conflict between the Kukis and Nagas. Scores of houses were torched, and at least five people were killed in intermittent incidents of violence since.

The Ukhrul district unit of the Kuki CSO (Civil Society Organisations) Working Committee defended the road blockade at Shangkai. Condemning the May 13 killing of three church leaders in the adjoining Kangpokpi district and the abduction of 14 Kuki civilians thereafter, the organisation said the protest was a legitimate cry for justice.

“Instead of addressing our genuine grievances, the CRPF and Rapid Action Force Personnel responded with brutal, excessive force against unarmed civilians, especially women. Reports from the ground confirm that security forces fired multiple rounds of tear gas directly at the residential area, assaulted protesters, and shot a woman in the head, who is now fighting for her life. Tear gas was also fired into a house sheltering a 95-year-old woman, causing her severe respiratory distress,” the organisation said in a statement.

Attack outrageous: Naga body

The Working Committee of the Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL), the apex body of the Tangkhul community that dominated Ukhrul district, blamed the ambush on Kuki “narco-terrorists”.

In a statement, the TNL said it was “deeply outraged” by the “savagery” of the assailants and said the “repeated inaction and apparent indifference” of the Central security forces emboldened the attackers.

The TNL also said that before the ambush, the “terrorists” fired upon TM Kasom villagers, who were digging a grave for a burial ceremony. At the same time, heavy firing directed at Litan forced residents to flee for their lives, it said.

The organisation claimed that Kuki extremists have been extorting civilians along NH-202 and using a strategic stretch as their “shooting range”. It said the government “must act decisively to clear the highway, neutralise the extremists, and restore normalcy.