Gunfire echoed from near the Changsang Hill on the northeastern edge of Imphal Valley at around 9.30 a.m. on 20th March, and once again, no one was held accountable.

Suspected armed Kuki militants opened fire on Meitei villagers collecting firewood near Pukhao village under the watch of CRPF and Manipur Police personnel, laying bare not just a security lapse but a deeper pattern of impunity that continues to define life in the region. The villagers were gathering firewood, a bare essential.

Then came the shots.

Ten to twelve rounds, fired from an elevated position near Changsang Hill under Saikul Police Station, shattered the stillness. Panic took over. People ran, scattered and ducked as each second was a calculation between instinct and survival.

However, the most unsettling detail lies not in the attack itself but in what followed. Eyewitnesses say the security personnel escorting the villagers did not return fire. There was no immediate retaliation or no visible pursuit, only gunfire from the hills, met by silence on the ground.

In the hours that followed, forces swept through the Pukhao–Terapur area. Reinforcements arrived. The familiar language of response took over with phrases like “area domination,” “heightened deployment,” and “situation under control” were repeated with predictable regularity.

Yet the outcome remains stark.

No arrests. No recovery of weapons. Not even an operation inside the Kuki-dominated Saikul region.

On March 20, an 18-member delegation met the Imphal East Superintendent of Police demanding basic security. The forests they enter are not optional spaces; they are lifelines providing everyday essentials like firewood.

A pattern of Impunity

This is the second attack by suspected Kuki terrorists inside the Imphal Valley this year. Suspected Kuki militants carried out an IED attack on the Meitei villagers in Saiton village on 5th January, severely injuring two women.

Mayanglambam Rishikanta Singh was executed on 21st January in Churachandpur District. Videos showing suspected Kuki militants shooting the man as he begged for his life were swiftly removed from social media, yet no decisive action followed to bring his killers to justice.

The firing near Pukhao is not just another entry in a growing list of incidents. It signals an uneven application of law where certain armed groups can strike, withdraw, and disappear without consequence.

Such selective, risk-calibrated enforcement that is assertive in the Imphal Valley, yet markedly cautious in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, continues to erode the already fragile public trust.