Wife of former Saikul MLA Yamthong Haokip was killed in a bomb explosion at their home in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, The Indian Express reported on Sunday, quoting police officials.
While the former MLA is from the tribal Kuki community, his wife, 59-year-old Charubala Haokip was a Meitei.
The explosion occurred around 3 pm on Saturday when Charubala Haokip was burning waste at her house at Ekou Mulam village in the Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district.
According to an unidentified police officer, a locally made improvised explosive device was concealed among waste material, reported The Indian Express.
As of Sunday morning, no arrests had been made. A police officer told Scroll that the explosion is suspected to be an accident.
Manipur Police also said that prima facie evidence showed that Haokip had succumbed to an injury caused by an explosion. The explosion occurred when she was burning waste materials inside the compound of a neighbouring house that was recently vacated, the police said.
“Investigation is in full swing and the source of the explosion will be ascertained only after receiving the report from forensic units,” the police said on social media.
The police said that Haokip had been residing at Ekou Mulam for the past one and a half year, even after the communal violence started in the state. The incident should not be linked to violence, it added.
Yamthong Haokip has urged the police to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and determine the type of explosives used, reported the Deccan Herald.
Haokip served as the Saikul MLA twice – once in 2012 and again in 2017 – on Congress tickets. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in the state.
The incident comes amid ethnic clashes between the two communities.
On July 31, Chief Minister N Biren Singh told the state Assembly that at least 226 persons were killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of ethnic clashes in Manipur in May 2023.