Imphal: Hijam Kulajit, 53, hasn’t hasn’t slept a wink since 6 July. His daughter, Hijam Linthoingambi, 17, and her friend, Phijam Hemjit, 20, have been missing since that day. Hope that they are still alive has long disappeared.
The two students, both from the Meitei community, were identified in photos that went viral on social media on 25 September. One photo purportedly shows their bodies under a tree, and the other features them with armed men in the frame.
At his house in Imphal Wednesday, Kulajit stood in front of a poster of his daughter’s eyes — a close-up of one of the viral photos.
“Her eyes are asking only one question, why me? What was her fault? Why was she targeted? I have no answers to give her, I will never be able to,” he said, speaking to ThePrint.
The two students’ death has sparked fresh protests in Manipur that has been battling ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since early May this year.
The CBI arrested four suspects, including two women from the Kuki community, Sunday for the alleged killings. But the families of the victims have not yet found closure, as the bodies have not been recovered.
Linthoingambi’s mother Jayashree, 45, said she was hoping that the administration would be able to find and return her daughter’s body for one final goodbye.
“The photos are proof that she is dead. But how can we be at peace if we don’t perform the last rites? If the CBI officials want, they can find the body. They have a lot of evidence,” she told ThePrint as Linthoingambi’s classmates from TG HS School in Imphal poured in to give their condolences to the family.
Down the road in the same area of Imphal, another family is shattered.
Hemjit’s mother, Birohini Devi, 51, sat beside her son’s favourite guitar and framed photographs. Getting up to light a candle for him, she lamented that he would never ever return to sing her songs.
“He wanted to be an entrepreneur. He wanted to support the family and never have to ask for monetary help from others,” said Birohini.
A student of Kindergarten Montessori School in Imphal, Hemjit is said to have given a ride to Linthoingambi after a coaching class on the day the two went missing.
“The photographs, his bike, a bag that he was carrying, the clothes they were wearing in the photos are all evidence, and the CBI must use it to find the bodies of our children,” Hemjit’s father Phijam Ibungobi Singh, 55, told ThePrint.
“We are unable to sleep or eat knowing our son is dead. But how can we live? We haven’t seen the body. The body must have decomposed by now, but even if it’s a small part that’s left, we set the soul free after the last rites,” he added.
A joint action committee has been formed by citizens in Imphal, with its members sitting on an indefinite hunger strike on the road since Tuesday. Their only demand is that the bodies of the students be handed over to their grieving families.
“The message that we are sending through our peaceful protest is to recover the bodies of the young students. Without the bodies, the families are starving,” Mahendra Singh, a member of the committee, told ThePrint. “It is possible to find the bodies, I think. I am satisfied by the CBI probe and it’s going in the right direction.”
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Accused sent to five days’ CBI custody
The CBI on 1 October issued a statement confirming four arrests from Churachandpur in the ongoing investigation linked to the reported deaths of the two students. It is one of 11 cases involving women and children in Manipur that was handed over to the agency by the Supreme Court in July.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the case on 23 August, based on the families’ complaint lodged with the Manipur Police.
The four arrested are two men, Paominlun Haokip and Smalsawm Haokip, and two women, Lhingneichong Baitekuki and Tinneilhing Henthang.
The accused were brought to Assam’s Guwahati, where a special court sent them to five days’ CBI custody. They will be produced before court again on 7 October.
The CBI also flew Baitekuki’s daughters, aged nine and 11, to Assam and handed them over to a child protection officer in the state’s Kamrup Metro district for their protection.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)