New Delhi has sent security forces to Manipur to try to put down the ethnic unrest that began earlier this month.
Dozens of rebel fighters have been killed in clashes with security forces in India’s remote northeastern state of Manipur.
The state has been tense since the May 3 explosion of inter-ethnic violence between tribal groups and the ethnic-majority Meitei population over plans to extend economic quotas to the Meitei.
The unrest left dozens dead and thousands displaced.
On Sunday, Prime Minister N. Biren Singh told reporters that at least 40 fighters had been killed in a crackdown by security forces.
Two police officers had also been killed in the past two days of unrest, he added.
“The terrorists have used M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles and sniper rifles against civilians. They came to many villages to burn houses,” local media quoted Singh as saying.
“We have started taking very strong action against them with the help of the army and other security forces. We have reports that about 40 terrorists have been shot dead,” Singh said.
The remote states of northeast India — sandwiched between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar — have long been a tinderbox of tensions between different ethnic groups.
New Delhi rushed thousands of paramilitaries and army troops to the state of 3.2 million people. It imposed a curfew after fighting broke out between the Meitei, who are mostly Hindus and live in and around the capital Imphal, and the mostly Christian Kuki tribe from the surrounding hills.
Mobile internet in the area has been out for weeks.
Most of the victims are believed to be from the Kuki community, with some of their villages and churches destroyed by Meitei gangs. But the Meitei were also targeted by the Kukis in some places.
The first event leading to the clashes was Kuki’s anger at the prospect of the Meitei receiving guaranteed quotas of government jobs and other benefits in some form of affirmative action.
This also fueled long-held fears among the Kuki that the Meitei might also be allowed to acquire land in areas currently set aside for them and other tribal groups.