Bodies Of Meitei Infant, 5 Hostages Of Same Family Killed By Kuki Militants In Manipur Brought Home

The bodies of six people from the same family and two senior citizens from the Meitei community who were killed in a terror attack by Kuki militants were brought home today in Manipur's Jiribam from a hospital in neighbouring Assam's Silchar.

The autopsies are done, but the family is yet to get the reports. Jiribam residents who have been to the Silchar hospital told NDTV the state government may not want the reports to be shared immediately as the situation is tense, and it could spark another round of public unrest, as happened a few days ago when houses of MLAs were vandalised by miscreants.

The six from the same family were taken hostage by Kuki militants on November 11, the same day 10 militants who attacked civilian homes were shot dead by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in an encounter in Jiribam, 220 km from the state capital Imphal.

The hostages were killed in captivity by Kuki militants and their bodies were dumped in a river. The six hostages were a woman, her infant child, her two-year-old son, her mother, her sister, and her sister's daughter.

The Manipur government has called the attackers "Kuki terrorists" in a cabinet resolution that also sought to designate them as an unlawful organisation or a terror group.

The police and the CRPF have called the attackers militants who came with assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, while civil society groups of the Kuki tribes have called them "village volunteers".

Laisharam Herojit, the father of the infant and the boy, on November 13 appealed to the authorities to find his family as soon as possible, and also appealed to the militants to release them safely.

"They are all innocent. My two children cannot even speak yet. The elder one has just about started to speak. Please release them unhurt and hand them over to the family," he had said.

Two days after his appeal, the bodies of his two-year-old son, his wife's sister and her eight-year-old daughter were found floating in a river. In the next two more days, the partially decomposed bodies of his wife, eight-year-old infant and his mother-in-law were found in the river.

"It is true," he had told NDTV, after all the six bodies reached the morgue.

The two other senior citizens from the Meitei community were killed by Kuki militants during the attack in Jiribam's Borobekra village, just before an armoured vehicle of the CRPF engaged the militants in an encounter that lasted 45 minutes on November 11, police sources have said.

Political leaders from across party lines have condemned the killing of the three women and the three children in Manipur. They said it was a terror attack, as it was not a skirmish between two communities in a riot-like situation, but a calculated hostage-taking operation with an intention to execute the civilians.

"Terrorist Attack"

"The absurdity of the Kuki militants being called 'village volunteers' is such that something like this is impossible in the context of Jammu and Kashmir, where if the police or the government officially releases a statement specifying 'militants', civilians do not disrespect the forces by parroting the narratives of militants," a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer told NDTV on call from Imphal, requesting anonymity.

Kuki groups say the Borobekra attack of November 11 was in retaliation to an attack by suspected Meitei militants on Zairawn Hmar village in Jiribam on November 7, when a school teacher and a mother of three children from the Hmar tribe was allegedly raped, killed and set on fire.

The autopsy report said the school teacher's body was burned 99 per cent. It noted horrific injuries, including broken bones and a separated skull. Samples to check for sex assault could not be taken as "the body parts were completely charred and not recognisable", according to the report. The rape allegation was made by her husband in a first information report (FIR).

Cycle Of Violence

The latest cycle of violence, however, began on October 19 when "Kuki miscreants" burnt several houses and attacked Borobekra police station, a statement by the state cabinet on November 16 said.

It said the following: On October 26, "Kuki miscreants" again set a house on fire at Moulkangthol village in the same district. On November 3, Jiribam police rescued a Vaiphei woman from Chandrapur Rani Veng Babupara and handed her over to her family. On November 7, a Hmar woman was killed and several houses were set on fire in Zairawn village by Meitei miscreants. The same day, Kuki miscreants attacked Mongbung Meitei village with bombs. On November 11, the CRPF effectively countered an armed offensive by Kuki militants on Borobekara police station which housed a relief camp, killing 11 militants. In the attack, two Meitei civilians were killed by the Kuki militants.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is looking into these cases.