Legal action will be taken against a political leader from Churachandpur for allegedly inciting the violence in the district on Thursday that left two persons dead, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Saturday.

On Thursday, two persons were killed and 30 were injured after a mob stormed a government complex housing the offices of the superintendent of police and the district commissioner. The mob allegedly set fire to several buses and trucks used by security forces and the superintendent of police’s office.

They were protesting the suspension of police head constable Siamlalpaul after a video went viral on social media showing him allegedly posing with “armed miscreants” on Wednesday. The police, in the suspension order against Siamlalpaul, had said that his actions amounted to grave misconduct.

“A respected leader had tweeted just before the incident at Churachandpur [on Thursday] that no one was suspended when weapons were snatched in Imphal, while a personnel was suspended in Churachandpur,” the chief minister’s office in a social media post quoted Singh as saying on Saturday.

Singh added that it was an act of inciting and misguiding youth, according to the chief minister’s office.

Singh alleged that playing divisive politics and misleading the youth is condemnable and the state government will take legal action against the leader who had tweeted just before the incident.

While Singh did not name the leader, hours before the violence erupted in Churachandpur district on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Paolienlal Haokip had tweeted that the Manipur government was biased against the Kuki community.

“They gave away state security arms and ammunition, none suspended, they lead mobs to burn down Kuki colonies in Imphal, no action,” Haokip, an MLA from the Kuki community, had said in a social media post. “A police personnel appeared in a viral video of Kuki volunteers and he got suspended? Is this a just state? Whoever supports an unjust state.”

The Manipur chief minister alleged that such accusations were a blatant lie since the state government had suspended seven officials in the case related to the loot of arms and ammunition by a mob from the Manipur Police Training College in Imphal’s Pangei and the fifth Indian Reserve Battalion in Chingarel. The incident occurred on Tuesday.

Singh also said that threats to law enforcing agencies and government officials will not be taken lightly. “The chief minister stated that the government and all right-thinking persons of the state and country are with the SP [superintendent of police] and the DC [deputy commissioner] Churachandpur,” the chief minister’s office said.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, an umbrella body of the Kuki-Zo community, on Friday had demanded that the superintendent of police and deputy commissioner leave the district within 24 hours.

The forum had also demanded that the officials – both of whom are from the Manipur cadre – be replaced with Union Territory cadre officers who are “preferably from the Kuki-Zo community”.

Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since early May. Over 200 people have been killed since the conflict broke out and nearly 67,000 persons have been forced to flee their homes.