The bodies of the 10 armed men killed in a gunfight in Manipur have not been handed over to the representatives of the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups, leading to an apparent deadlock with the Manipur government.
The suspected militants were killed on November 11 in retaliatory fire when they allegedly attacked an outpost of the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force and a police station in Jiribam where the displaced people from the Meitei community were taking shelter. The police said two relief camp residents were later found dead while six other Meiteis, including an infant, are missing.
Representatives of the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar outfits alleged that the Manipur government is stalling because it does not want them to transport the bodies to Churachandpur by road as it would give the groups “political mileage”.
The bodies of the Hmar men were sent for post mortem in the Silchar Medical College and Hospital in neighbouring Assam.
While the autopsies of six bodies were done on November 12, the remaining were carried out on November 14. According to Kuki-Zomi-Hmar representatives, the government is delaying the hand-over of bodies, citing the need for DNA tests to be carried out for identification.
“The bodies have already been identified, so we don’t understand the need for a DNA test,” said Lalri Hekte, the president of Hmar Students’ Association of Jiribam region. “We also asked for a written order but they refused to show it. Why can’t they take DNA samples and release the bodies?”
Several Hmar represenatives have been protesting outside the medical college on Thursday night against the delay in releasing the bodies.
A senior Manipur government official told Scroll that DNA sampling was a part of the “normal” procedure followed in this case.
“The bodies will be handed over to them once the formalities are over,” said the official. “The post mortem has been conducted and now they have to be identified and their DNA sampling is being done for that. If their bona fide relatives come to the hospital, the bodies would be handed over,” the official said.
However, officials and leaders from the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar community told Scroll that the deadlock is due to the plan to transport the bodies to Churachandpur by road. “Our people want the bodies to be taken by road,” an activist from the community. “The Manipur government wants them to be taken by chopper since they fear this will give us political mileage. The DNA test is an excuse to buy time.”
On November 14, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum and all the apex bodies of the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities, including Hmar Inpui, held a meeting in Churachandpur, where it was decided that the mortal remains of the 10 men “must be transported” by road through Mizoram and then to Churachandpur via Tipaimukh Road once the postmortems are completed.
A statement by the groups said: “Other modes of transportation will not be accepted.”
Last year, the bodies of 87 Kuki-Zomi-Hmar victims killed in the ethnic clashes in Manipur were laid to rest in a mass burial ceremony held in Churachandpur district after seven months. Many of them were airlifted from Imphal.
A senior Manipur police official alleged: “[This time] they want to use the deceased as a political tool by taking the bodies through Mizoram and Churachandpur.”
The Young Mizo Association, the most influential civil society organisation in Mizoram, which described the deceased as “innocent” victims, had said it would pay tribute to the deceased at a reception in Aizawl while receiving the bodies when they arrive from Assam.
The Kukis share close ethnic ties with the Mizos and consider themselves part of a “greater Zo family”. In Mizoram, the Zomis are the single-largest ethnic group.
The Mizoram government and several political leaders from the state have spoken out sharply against the situation in Manipur since May, 2023, when ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo-Hmar groups broke out.
The conflict has caused the death of at least 252 people and the displacement of over 60,000.
