Five people were killed in two separate incidents in India's northeastern state of Manipur, police said on ​Sunday, as fresh ethnic violence erupted in the conflict-hit region.

Three ‌men from the Kuki tribal group were killed in an exchange of gunfire between "unidentified armed miscreants" in the state's Noney district on Saturday, according to a police ​statement.

A top Kuki tribal body blamed Naga ​separatist outfits for the killings, describing them as a "direct unprovoked assault . . . in their homeland."

The killings came amid mass protests attended by hundreds of thousands of people in ​the state capital Imphal and other areas, demanding the abrogation of ​a ceasefire arrangement between Kuki armed groups and the Indian state.

The predominantly Christian Kuki ‌and ⁠Naga tribes have a long history of conflict over competing claims to ethnic homelands in the remote northeastern state.

The latest fighting erupted after a Naga man was allegedly assaulted by men from the Kuki community ​in February this ​year.

The killing ⁠of three Kuki pastors in May, allegedly by Naga armed groups, triggered a series of retaliatory abductions and ​killings by both sides.

The latest Kuki-Naga clashes have added ​to tensions in ⁠Manipur, where the Kuki community is also embroiled in a bloody ethnic conflict with the mainly Hindu Meitei community that began in May 2023 over ⁠economic ​benefits and job quotas.

More than 60,000 people ​displaced by the conflict, which has claimed more than 300 lives, continue to live in ​temporary shelters.