Last rites of nine Manipur violence victims held, hundreds join mass burial

Imphal, Nov 22 The last rites of nine Manipur violence victims, including three children and three women abducted and killed by militants, were performed in Jiribam district on Friday as hundreds of people joined their mass burial with tearful eyes.

Earlier in the day, the bodies of nine victims were transported to Jiribam by road after the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) authority handed over the bodies to their families.

The post-mortem examinations of all the nine deceased were conducted at the SMCH after the Manipur Police took their bodies to the medical college.

The Civil Society Organisations and the family members of the victims, all belonging to the Meitei community, had earlier refused to accept the bodies demanding justice.

The family members as well as the Joint Action Committee (JAC) representing the families of the victims of the killings in Jiribam on Thursday announced its decision to claim the bodies of the deceased lying in SMCH as the state government handed over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

According to officials in Imphal, Assam and Manipur police personnel escorted the nine coffin-carrying convoy taken to Jiribam, around 55 km away from southern Assam’s Silchar.

The convoy had to halt at several places on the way from Silchar to Jiribam as people and civil society representatives of various Meitei groups paid floral tributes to the bodies of the victims.

The six women and children were identified as Yumrembam Rani Devi (60) and her two daughters -- Telem Thoibi Devi (31) and Laishram Heithoibi Devi (25) and three grandchildren -- Telem Thajamanbi Devi (8), Laishram Chingkheinganba Singh (two-and-a-half-years old) and Laishram Lamnganba Singh (10 months).

The bodies of the three other victims were identified as Laisram Baren Maitri (60) and Maibam Kesho (71), both killed by unidentified attackers on November 11, and Khundrakpam Athouba (21), who was killed in firing in Jiribam on November 17.

Athouba participated in a protest in Jiribam on November 17 against the abduction and killing of three children and three women.

On November 11, according to the Manipur Police, during an encounter with the CRPF and the militants in the Jiribam district, 10 suspected Kuki "militants" were shot dead.

Though the Manipur Police said that the 10 slain people were Kuki militants, all the tribal organisations including the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), an apex body of tribals in Manipur, claimed that they were "Village Volunteers".

On the same day, three women and three children were kidnapped by suspected militants from a relief camp in Borobekra Sub division in Jiribam district and their bodies were subsequently recovered near the confluence of the Jiri and Barak rivers along the Manipur-Assam border.

The bodies were brought to the SMCH for post-mortem examinations.

The Manipur government earlier this week requested the Centre to hand over three cases of killings to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The cases include the killing of six innocent Meitei women and children in Jiribam, the death of a Hmar tribal woman who was burnt to death on November 7 in Jiribam and the killing of a Meitei community woman farmer in Saiton in Bishnupur district on November 9.