Sources said the woman was shot dead near Shishu Nistha Niketan School around 8 am. The deceased was believed to be in her early 50s.
While the woman’s identity is yet to be established officially, the Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum claimed that she belonged to a Zo-Kuki community. The forum identified her as Dongaiching, a woman who lived on a church campus in the Lamphel area of Imphal East district.
Strongly condemning the act, the forum said that women, children and even the mentally challenged were not spared from the “genocidal programme” of the majority community.
The woman’s body has been kept at the mortuary of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal.