At least 29 houses were set on fire in separate incidents in Kuki and Tangkhul Naga villages in Manipur near the India-Myanmar border on Wednesday, an Assam Rifles official said.

Officials said that unidentified persons set fire to all 15 houses in Phaimol, a Kuki village, in Kamjong district at around 12.30 pm, The Times of India reported. The village had already been evacuated because of security concerns and its residents are temporarily staying at Aishi village, where an Assam Rifles camp is located.

At about 1.45 pm, armed persons set fire to Shangkhalok, a Tangkhul Naga village, in Kamjong district, in what officials described as an apparent retaliatory attack, the newspaper reported. Around seven houses were partially burnt but saved.

In a third incident, around seven houses in Huimine Thana, a Tangkhul Naga village between Shangkhalok and Phaikoh, in Kamjong district were also set on fire, allegedly by Kuki militants, the newspaper reported.

No one was killed or injured in the incidents, the newspaper quoted the police as saying.

A fourth incident was reported on Thursday morning in the Kuki village Liekot in Noney district, the Kuki Inpi Manipur, an apex Kuki body said.

The Kuki body claimed that alleged Naga militants attacked Leikot around 5 am using automatic weapons before setting the village on fire.

On Wednesday, the Kuki Inpi alleged that cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN-IM, and the Myanmar-based Shanni Nationalities Army had carried out the attack on Phaimol.

It alleged that the attack was part of a “systemic campaign of violence and destruction targeting Kuki villages in the Tangkhul-dominated hill districts” of the state.

The Kuki CSO Working Committee in Kamjong also accused armed Naga groups of carrying out the attack on Phaimol.

The committee claimed that a similar attack had taken place in Kultuh village on June 11.

“These repeated acts of arson, intimidation and violence constitute a serious violation of human rights, threaten peace and public safety and undermine the rule of law,” the committee said on Wednesday. “Such actions have caused fear, displacement and suffering among innocent civilians.”

Meanwhile, Naga organisations rejected the allegations and accused Kuki armed groups of carrying out a “strategic” attack on a Kuki village.

The Eastern Command Naga Village Guard said Phaimol had been “advertently set on fire to establish a basis for preplanned attack on two Tanghkhul Naga settlements”.

It alleged that about 20 armed Kuki men crossed the Namya River from Phaikoh and set fire to houses in the two villages. It also claimed that 20 camps sheltering 365 Myanmar refugees at Kherongram were also destroyed.

The organisation claimed that the attacks took place in the presence of personnel from the Assam Rifles, Border Security Force, Indian Reserve Battalion and Manipur Police stationed nearby.

The developments came amid tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted on February 7 after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes. At least 25 persons from the two communities have been killed since tensions erupted.

Written by Sara Varghese. Inputs from Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.