A day after 10 suspected militants from the Hmar community were shot dead by security forces in Manipur’s Jiribam, the bodies of two Meitei men were recovered from the area on Tuesday morning. Six people from the Meitei community, including three children, from the area are still missing.
The Jakuradhor and Borobekra area in Jiribam district, close to the hills of neighbouring Hmar majority Pherzawl district, witnessed a major gunfight between the suspected militants and security forces on Monday afternoon.
This took place, police said, after a CRPF post located at Jakuradhor and the Borobekra police station nearby came under gunfire. Locals said that before this, the armed miscreants had also attacked homes and shops in Meitei settlements in the area.
On Tuesday morning, the bodies of two men identified as Laishram Barel Singh (61) and Maibam Keshwo Singh (75) were recovered by the police from houses in Jakuradhor. According to locals, the two men were among 10 people residing in a relief camp in Borobekra police station who had gone missing after Monday’s violence.
A search operation underway in Manipur. (Image source: Manipur Police/X)
According to Yurembam Sanjoy Singh, a resident, they were among 118 people who had been staying in a relief camp set up for residents of nearby villages after violence and arson first gripped the area in June this year. The rest of the Meiteis displaced from this area are staying in relief camps in the Jiribam district headquarters, a little over 20 kilometres away.
“During the day, people residing in the relief camp head outside. When the firing and arson started yesterday, people began running here and there and after it subsided, we found that 10 people from the relief camp were missing. This morning, the two bodies were found and another two people have been found with injuries. But six people – three women and three children – are still missing and we are very afraid of where they might be or what might have happened to them,” Singh said.
Police said that initially 13 people had been missing after the attack but tha three had been rescued by Assam Rifles and police. They also confirmed that six people continue to be missing after the violence and said that search operations are underway. N Rajendro Singh, another resident of the relief camps, said that all six are from the same family – a grandmother, her two daughters and three grandchildren aged eight, two and a baby less than a year old.
“We looked for the missing people after the firing stopped and we only returned to the relief camp at 1 am. We looked for them with the forces this morning too, but we could not find them. Now we want to move away from this area to go to the main Jiribam town where it is safer because we are completely exposed and unsafe here. But we are stuck here because travelling by road to the town is too unsafe because we have to cross tribal areas and we may come under attack on the way,” he said.
In a statement, Jiri Apunba Lup, a group from Jiribam representing the Meitei community, alleged that the six were abducted during Monday’s violence.
“The government should take necessary action to rescue the persons within 24 hours. The kidnappers should be arrested and given appropriate punishment. Otherwise, various forms of strong agitation will be launched by the people of Jiribam,” read the statement.
The incident on Monday marked the highest number of casualties in a single day this year in the ongoing conflict in the state. It comes days after a 31-year-old woman from the Hmar community, who was living in a village near the district headquarters, was killed in an attack on her village last week. Hmar groups have claimed that those killed on Monday were “village volunteers” who were “retaliating” against the woman’s killing, and not militants.
Addressing the media in Imphal on Tuesday, IGP (Ops) I K Muivah said that security forces resorted to firing because of the use of sophisticated weapons against them. After the encounter, police said that three AK-47 rifles, four SLRs, two INSAS rifles and one rocket propelled grenade had been recovered.
“Our armed forces always try to always caution them to restrict their firing. That is one of our standard practices. In almost all situations, we ask them to restrict their firing but when they are fired upon with sophisticated weapons, with rocket launchers, etc, then that retaliation also is part of our mandate. And in that mandate, those 10 armed militants were found dead. We have lodged an FIR and reinforcements have gone there. The Assam Rifles, CRPF and civil police reinforcements have gone there and we are doing combing operations in the Jakuradhor area,” said Muivah.
Following the incident, Kuki-Zo groups have accused the CRPF of excesses. On Tuesday, the Kuki Students’ Organization issued a diktat that “no CRPF personnel shall be allowed to leave their camp premises” in Kuki-Zo majority areas. “Any CRPF personnel found in violation of this notice shall do so at their own risk and responsibility… until the CRPF publicly acknowledges and apologises for their barbaric actions in Jiribam,” read a statement issued by the KSO.
On Tuesday night, police issued a statement in response to these allegations that the firing was retaliatory in nature. In the statement, police also said that those killed in the firing by security forces have been identified as not being locals of the area.
“The armed militants have been found to be from distant Churachandpur and Pherzawl districrs, and had traversed a long distance to Jiribam district for planning/executing these attacks,” read the statement.
Security personnel during a search operation and area domination in the vulnerable areas of hill and valley districts of Manipur. (PTI Photo) 
A search operation underway in Manipur. (Image source: Manipur Police/X)
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