Two of the four Kuki-Zo members of a soldier’s family, who were allegedly abducted by a Meitei mob from a security check post in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, have been found dead, officials told Scroll on Thursday.

Five Kuki-Zo people, including two women, were allegedly “forcibly taken away” on Tuesday morning by a Meitei mob near Kangchup Chingkhong village checkpost in the presence of the police and central security forces. They were travelling towards L Phaijang village for a wedding function. Their alleged abduction led to firing incidents and fresh protests in Manipur.

Manipur has been reeling under ethnic clashes between Kuki and Meitei communities. Over 200 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in early May. Nearly 60,000 persons have been forced to flee their homes.

Inspector General of Police Themthing Ngasangva told Scroll said that two bodies, one woman and a man, were found on Tuesday evening. Two others remain missing. The fifth member of the group, the 65-year-old father of the Indian Army soldier, was rescued by security forces on Tuesday and has been seriously injured. He was airlifted to a military base hospital in Guwahati on Wednesday.

In a statement released on Tuesday night, the Manipur Police also confirmed that the vehicle carrying the group of Kuki-Zos was “confronted by an enraged mob”.

Sanjoy Meitei, the officer in charge of the Lamsang Police Station, told Scroll that the police in Imphal West district found the body of the missing Kuki-Zo woman on Tuesday from Atom Khuman village, which is 8 kms from Kangchup Chingkhong.

“The woman had a bullet injury on her head,” Sanjoy Meitei said. “The woman is suspected to be a Kuki. The body is at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal mortuary for conducting postmortem. We have registered a case on charges of murder.”

The body of the Kuki man was found at the Takhok Mapal Makha Puruksoubi Loukon Palli area in Imphal East around 8.17 pm on Tuesday.

“The body has three bullet injuries marked in his chest and one in his head,” Inspector Poujeanlung Panmei, the officer in charge of the Irilbung Police Station, told Scroll.

Panmei added that a case has been registered against unknown persons under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder) and provisions of the Arms Act.

The situation was already volatile in Manipur as two teenage Meitei boys went missing on Sunday. The two boys, identified as 16-year-old Maibam Avinash and 19-year-old Ningthoujam Anthony, went missing after they visited the Sekmai area in Imphal West district on Sunday morning to attend a function. Their phones were reportedly recovered wrapped in a black plastic bag near an oil pump in Senapati district, a Naga-dominated area.

On Tuesday, the Manipur Police said that they have arrested two Kuki persons allegedly associated with the Kuki Revolutionary Army (Unification) militant group in connection with the case of the two missing Meitei teenagers.