The bodies of 87 members of the Kuki-Zo community who died in the ethnic violence in Manipur were laid to rest in a mass burial in the Churachandpur district on Wednesday.

The burial took place at the district’s Sehken village around 2.30 pm on Wednesday, said the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a group representing the state’s Kuki-Zo community.

Earlier in the day, thousands of people attended a farewell ceremony at the Peace Ground in the Tuibong area for those who had died.

Forty-one of the bodies had been airlifted from Imphal. The remaining 46 bodies were brought to the burial site from a morgue at the Churachandpur Civil Hospital, The Hindu quoted a spokesperson of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum as saying.

At the mass burial, the mourners sang songs such as Igam Hilou Ham [Is this not my land?] and honoured those who died with a gun salute, The News Minute reported.

On December 15, a similar mass burial took place in the Kangpokpi district, in which the bodies of 19 members of the Kuki-Zo community were laid to rest.

Manipur has been gripped by ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since early May. The conflict has left 175 persons dead, according to police records. Nearly 60,000 persons have been forced to flee their homes.

A Supreme Court-appointed committee in its report on November 20 said that of the 94 unclaimed bodies in three state mortuaries, 88 had been identified. However, civil society organisations had been “exerting pressure” on their relatives not to accept the bodies, the panel said.

Following this, the court directed the Manipur government to ensure a dignified burial or cremation of all those killed in the ethnic violence in the state.

Also read: From ‘self-rule’ call to setting the narrative, how ITLF has become new Kuki-Zo voice in Manipur