Imphal: A 35-year old man and his wife were shot dead at an isolated village in Phungyar sub-division of Manipur’s interior Ukhrul district bordering Myanmar, an official report said on Tuesday.
The report said around six suspected militants in military uniform barged into the house of Vareingam Mahonao Shimray at Lungphu village on Sunday night and gunned down Shimray and his wife, Ngaherla (33) in front of their three children. Both died on the spot, sources said, adding that the bodies were collected by police from the village, around 85 km northeast from here and are being kept at Ukhrul district hospital for post-mortem.
The motive behind the killings was not immediately known, the sources said. Shimray was not only a clerk in the local church but also a teacher at a nearby private school and was involved in the work of National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS).
First official reports hinted that the militants might have demanded a huge money from the victim since the latter was a village authority in the implementation of the scheme in the area. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the killing, sources said, adding that Shimray was a respected person in the village. (PTI)