Three tribal church leaders killed in Manipur ambush

Suspected armed extremists ambushed a team of tribal church leaders in Kangpokpi district of Manipur on Wednesday morning (May 13, 2026), killing three of them and injuring four.

The victims, members of the Thadou Baptist Association of India (TBAI) and the United Baptist Council (UBC), were travelling in two vehicles from a Baptist convention in Churachandpur to Kangpokpi when they were attacked. The incident occurred on the hilly Tiger Road between Kotlen and Kotzim villages around 10 a.m.

One of the survivors told security personnel that the assailants came on foot and slipped away after firing a volley of bullets for three or four minutes from the hillside of the underprepared road that connects the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts, bypassing the non-tribal Meitei-majority Imphal Valley. Kukis have been avoiding the much shorter highway through this valley since the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities erupted on May 3, 2023.