As 19 Kuki-Zo victims of Manipur strife laid to rest, principal mourns Class 1 student — ‘inhuman act’

Tonsing Hangshing, his mom & family friend were killed while on their way to avail treatment in Imphal. SC had ordered Manipur to ensure burial for victims of ethnic violence.

Tonsing Hangshing, his mother and a family friend were killed while they were on their way to avail treatment in Imphal | By Special Arrangement

Guwahati: Little Tonsing Hangshing returned home, finally. So did his mother and a family friend after nearly eight months. Tears and prayers greeted them and the 16 others who were laid to rest at a mass burial ceremony Friday morning in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district.

The episode marked the end of a long, painful journey for some of the Kuki-Zo families who lost their loved ones in the Manipur ethnic conflict.

Tonsing, 7, from Kangchup Chingkhong village in Kangpokpi, his mother Meena Hangshing, 45, and family friend Lydia Lourembam, 57, were ruthlessly killed while they were on their way to avail treatment in Imphal on the evening of 4 June.

The time of death mentioned in the post mortem was 5:45 pm, as cited in a list of “martyrs” released by the Kuki Students’ Organisation in its daily newsletter.

“The remains of our family members arrived Thursday afternoon. His father Joshua is doing fine. He stood numb when he saw the coffins reaching home. He did not know how to react… It was after a while that he let out loud cries,” Tonsing’s cousin Lelen Hangshing told ThePrint over the phone from the burial ground.

Lydia’s husband Lourembam Inaoton came down from Kangchup to Kangpokpi for the funeral ceremony. He was warmy received by the village chiefs and leaders of civil society organisations.

Poster showing the victims of Manipur’s ethnic conflict at Phaijang village in Kangpokpi district on Friday | By Special Arrangement

Over a thousand people, including members of civil society organisations, attended the funeral service conducted under Kuki-Zo customs and traditions at the Phaijang cemetery in Kangpokpi. Village volunteers gave a gun salute to the deceased before the coffins were lowered for the final time at the end of the nearly three-hour service.

The hills of Manipur are mourning the return of 60 ‘martyrs’ as the mortal remains were airlifted from the mortuaries in Imphal to their home Thursday for the final journey — almost eight months after the bloodiest ethnic conflict broke out in the state on 3 May.

Thirty-three bodies from the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and 27 from the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) were flown in by IAF helicopters to their destinations in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts.

The mortal remains of 41 deceased were received at the Assam Rifles helipad in Churachandpur. Unlike in Kangpokpi, the funeral programme and the potential burial site has not been decided yet. Local sources in Churachandpur said the burial is likely to be held next week. The bodies are now being kept at the morgue in the Lamka (Churachandpur) Medical College.

In a press statement Thursday, the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) appreciated the Supreme Court — which ordered the Manipur government to ensure a dignified and decent burial for those killed during the ethnic violence — for “having to intervene and understand the sentiments of the Kuki-Zo communities”. A 12-hour shutdown was called by the CoTU in Sadar Hills-Kangpokpi that started at 5 a.m. Friday.

Ambulance carrying Tonsing set on fire

In the first week of June, gun fights had broken out between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo tribals at Kangchup village under Lamshang subdivision in which three persons lost their lives. Firing was also reported at K. Songlung and Phayeng villages in the foothills around that time. 

On 4 June, an injured Tonsing and his mother Meena were killed in a mob attack near Lamshang in Imphal West district. They were intercepted while travelling in an ambulance from the Assam Rifles camp in Kangchup to Imphal for treatment. Lydia, who hailed from the same locality and accompanied them, also lost her life. 

Tonsing had suffered splinter injuries during unprovoked firing at Kangchup area outside the Company Operating Base of Assam Rifles, defence sources had told ThePrint in June.

Tonsing’s cousin had said that a stray bullet had hit the child inside the camp, while intense firing went on outside.

“They had been at the camp for a month. The day the incident took place, the Assam Rifles requested the police for an ambulance. We could hear signals in walkie-talkie sets from the other side — voices saying that an ambulance is on its way to Imphal…. The mob missed the vehicle at different points along the route — at Phayeng, Lairenkabi, Heibongpokpi. It even crossed the Lamshang police station, but was stopped at Iroisemba, just near the station,” Lelen had told ThePrint.

“We received news that my little brother, his mother and a neighbour accompanying them died in the attack,” Lelen had said, not knowing where the bodies were at that point in time.

Family members of Tonsing Hangshing at funeral | By Special Arrangement

On Friday morning, there was some sense of relief as Lelen, Joshua and other family members attended the funeral. “Tonsing used to call me ‘He-o’, which means brother in our local dialect. While he was there, most of the time, we would play and crack jokes. It is difficult for all of us,” Lelen recalled. 

‘They are not God-fearing’

At Kangchup, L. Otsei Khongsai, the principal of Manger English School, where Tonsing was a student, is mourning the loss of a much loved student. 

Tonsing was studying in Class I. His elder brother and elder sister had been attending the same school that remains closed as the students and their families have been displaced by the ethnic violence. 

“I could not go to the funeral programme as Kangchup is in the frontline, and we cannot go anytime we like,” Khongsai said over the phone. 

“Tonsing suffered a head injury during the gunfight on 4 June. He was being taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, a Meitei mob burned him alive by setting fire to the ambulance carrying the child and his mother. I feel so sad to remember it all,” he said. 

“It’s an inhuman act by those who have no mercy on human beings, even children. Tonsing’s mother was a Meitei, married to a Kuki-Zo man. It’s a very sad thing. They are not God-fearing creatures who can do such a thing.” 

But, the school principal has little time to rest. Khongsai is guarding the school and the area along with a few village volunteers. “The school is in the buffer zone, and we are in the frontline,” he said, before ending the call.

(Edited by Tony Rai)