At least seven security personnel on their way for a search operation were injured in an attack at Moreh in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district on Tuesday, police said, adding to a fresh spurt of violence roiling the restive state where around 200 people have died since May last year in ethnic clashes.

Deputy commissioner of Tengnoupal Krishna Kumar said the attack was unprovoked and that the wounded security personnel were rushed to hospital. Five of the personnel were airlifted to Imphal, where they were admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences. Two others were being treated in Moreh.

Officials said the four of the wounded were Manipur Police commandos and the rest were from the Border Security Force.

The attack came a day after four men were killed and five others sustained critical bullet injuries in Manipur’s Thoubal district, prompting the state government to tighten curfew. The killings, reported from Lilong Chingao area around 12km from Imphal, came after a suspected extortion bid and targeted the Meitei Pangals, a Muslim community that had hitherto remained untouched by the violence.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh said that he was “highly upset” with the ongoing violence in the state and elements who engage in it will be held responsible for any stringent government action.

“Whatever is going on in the society now is too much. The government will find it really hard to tolerate if anyone or any group keeps on taking the law into their own hands. The central government will not keep on looking. If AFSPA is again reimposed, they will be held responsible,” he said after visiting those injured in a firing incident at Lilong Chingjao.

Speaking about Tuesday’s incident, Kaikholal Haokip, a spokesperson for an umbrella group of Kukis in Tengnoupal, said a gunfight broke out between security forces and unidentified gunmen following reports of commandos abducting two unarmed civilians. Tengnoupal police superintendent Luikham Lanmiyo denied reports that anyone was arrested.

“Armed miscreants have been trying to incite violence in the district since the past three days and Tuesday’s incident is a result of that. Total curfew has been imposed in the entire district and we will take a decision on relaxing it depending on the situation,” said a senior Tengnoupal district official on condition of anonymity.

This is the third attack on security forces in Moreh, close to the border with Myanmar, in four days.

The killings come days after militants attacked Manipur police commandos inside their barracks, during which rocket propelled grenades (RPG) were fired. Militants and security forces exchanged fire on Sunday evening near Moreh, in what was a fresh escalation of ethnic violence.

A nearly one-month long lull in ethnic strife was ruptured last Saturday when a gunfight broke out between Meitei and Kuki village volunteers, in which one person died. Before Saturday, 13 people were killed in a gunfight on December 4 in Tengnoupal district.

Manipur has been in the throes of ethnic violence since early May after clashes erupted between the Meiteis, the most populous community in the state, and the tribal Kukis. Around 200 people have died in the violence and another 50,000 displaced. The widespread ethnic violence has led to creation of community-based armed village defence volunteers as fault lines have deepened beyond the Meitei -Kuki divide, pitting different communities against each other.

On Tuesday, the Revolutionary Peoples Front, the political wing of terror outfit Peoples Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for Monday’s killings at Lilong. “RPF expresses deepest condolences for the loss of lives and injury to others in the incident,” a statement by the group said.

Biren Singh hinted at the possibility of involvement of mercenaries from Myanmar in Tuesday’s incident. “Search and combing operations jointly by security forces are underway in Moreh and reinforcements have been sent. We have doubts about involvement of foreign mercenaries from Myanmar side. It is our commitment to the people of Manipur and rest of India that we will not succumb to this kind of threat.”

Accusing state forces of selective targeting of Kuki-Zo people, two influential Kuki-Zo organisations, Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), declared a 24-hour total shutdown in Kuki-Zo majority areas beginning January 3. “We urge the central government to remove all Meitei state forces, especially commandos, from Moreh and the surrounding tribal-majority settlements. There can be no peace as long as they are deployed in the area,” said a joint statement by both organisations issued on Tuesday