New Delhi: The bodies of three individuals—a woman and two children—were found Friday near Jiri river located just 15 kilometre away from Borobekra in Manipur’s Jiribam district. This area was the site of a gunfight between armed miscreants and security forces earlier this week.
According to police sources, the victims are suspected to be from among six persons who were said to have been abducted Monday from near Borobekra police station, although their identities are still being confirmed.
“The bodies have been found. We are working to ascertain their identities, but it is highly likely they are from among those who were abducted,” a police source told ThePrint.
Three women and three children, including a two-year-old, went missing after suspected Kuki insurgents reportedly set fire to houses belonging to the Meitei community, according to a Meitei civil society organisation in Jiribam.
The identities of the missing were confirmed by their families. According to Meitei groups, they were Yurembham Rani Devi (61), Telam Thoibi Devi (31), Laishram Heitombi Devi (25), and three children aged eight years, two years and eight months.
A 15-year-old Meitei girl who witnessed the “abduction” had narrated her ordeal to ThePrint over phone.
“It was right after lunchtime. Armed men forced my grandmother, my two aunts, and three young cousins into a car and took them away,” she said. “We kept screaming for help, but they threatened to kill those abducted if we resisted.”
“I do not remember exactly how many of them (abductors) were there… the armed men hit one of my uncles with a gun, and he started bleeding. We tried to stop them, but they said they would kill everyone,” she said.
A photo purportedly showing the six missing individuals has surfaced on social media, and shows them seated on the ground near bamboo trees.
The police had previously said that 13 people had gone missing following an attack by “Kuki militants” in Jiribam, with three later rescued. Ten “Kuki militants” were killed Monday during a gunfight with Central Reserve Police Force personnel near Borobekra police station.
Addressing the media Tuesday, Inspector General of Police (Operations) I.K. Muivah said that security forces had resorted to retaliatory firing because the “militants” allegedly used sophisticated weapons against them. The police said that three AK-47 rifles, four self-loading rifles, two INSAS rifles and one rocket propelled grenade had been recovered.
Meanwhile, bodies of two elderly Meitei men—Laishram Barel Singh (61) and Maibam Keshwo Singh (75) were recovered Tuesday during a search operation in Jakuradhor village.
The incident follows a fresh spate of violence in Zairawn, a Hmar-dominated village of Jiribam. On 7 November, a woman from the Hmar tribe was killed by suspected Meitei insurgents, who also torched houses in the village.
In a police complaint, her husband alleged that she was raped before being killed. The following day, a woman from the valley-dominant Meitei community was fatally shot at by suspected Kuki insurgents while she was working in a paddy field.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: No intel on ‘abducted’ Meitei women & children yet, says Manipur Police. Search ops underway