Grenade wounds 21 in Manipur market

GUWAHATI, India, Wednesday (Reuters) At least 21 people, mostly women, were wounded when a man threw a grenade into a crowded market in India's restive northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday, police said.

"Six of the injured are in critical condition," a police officer told Reuters by phone from the state capital Imphal.

The grenade was thrown by one of two men riding a motorcycle.

Soon after the blast, armed police challenged two men who tried to run away.

"The policemen fired, killing one of them on the spot," the police officer said, adding he suspected the men to be linked to the blast. He said the second man escaped, but gave no further details.

At least a dozen armed separatist groups operate in Manipur, one of the seven states of India's isolated and turbulent northeast region, home to some 200 tribal and ethnic groups.

In another attack in the neighbouring state of Nagaland, three gunmen shot the former police chief of the state and critically wounded him.

Two of Nagaland's major tribal separatist groups are holding peace talks with New Delhi and both are observing a ceasefire with security forces.

Thousands of people have died in separatist, tribal and ethnic violence in India's northeast since the early 1980s.

In September, separatist guerrillas killed 14 soldiers in an ambush on an army patrol in Manipur in one of the bloodiest attacks in recent years.