At least two abandoned houses were set on fire by a mob here on Thursday afternoon a day after an attack in the Khamenlok area left nine people dead and injured ten others, officials said.

Security forces which tried to quell the mob used force and fired tear gas shells at the mob at New Checkon in Imphal, they added.

No casualty was reported in the arson as the houses that were torched were abandoned. The occupants had left after the ethnic violence started in the northeastern state early last month.

The incident happened as the army and Assam Rifles intensified their “area domination” operations in the aftermath of the recent spurt in violence in the strife-torn state of Manipur.

Army and Assam Rifles columns intensified patrolling, taking down barriers wherever they had been created.

An Army tweet said, “Enhanced Area Domination Operations by Army and Assam Rifles are being undertaken in the aftermath of the recent spurt in violence”.

The social media post by the Spear Corps of the Indian Army, whose operational area Manipur falls, said the “domination of fringe areas and higher reaches underway by long duration self-contained columns” was being enforced.

The security forces redoubled their efforts in the wake of an attack on a Kuki village in the Khamenlok area bordering Imphal East and Kangpoki districts in the early hours of Wednesday, where 9 people died and 10 more were injured in a gunbattle which ensued between the miscreants who attacked the village and villagers.

Later, on Wednesday evening, other miscreants set on fire the official quarters of woman Manipur minister Nemcha Kipgen in the Lamphel area in Imphal West district. Firefighters reached the spot and doused the flames before the blaze could spread to the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile the government of Manipur has yet again extended the internet suspension for another five days till 20 June 2023. The State has been without internet since the outbreak of ethnic violenec on 3 May.