Guwahati, September 2:

Ethnic rebels in the remote north-east attempted to kill the chief minister of Manipur state for the third time in four years, police said today.

Police said guerrillas fired a grenade into Okram Ibobi Singh’s official residence in the state capital Imphal yesterday. The People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak, a group fighting for an independent homeland for the majority Meitei community, telephoned local newspaper offices to claim responsibility for the attack.

“The bomb landed inside the chief minister’s residential complex and damaged a private temple. The chief minister was present in his residence when the explosion took place, but was unhurt,” a senior police official told AFP.

Singh has already been the target of two other assassination attempts over the past four years. There are some 19 militant groups active in Manipur, an isolated state that borders Myanmar, with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy. Violence linked to the several insurgencies in the state have left at least 10,000 people dead over the past two decades.