Imphal/Guwahati: A curfew has been imposed amid tension in Manipur’s Jiribam district after police recovered the mutilated body of a 59-year-old Meitei man from a hillside in Mulargaon Thursday evening.
The incident led to widespread panic in Jiribam and adjoining areas, reigniting old hostilities. A few settlements of the Kuki-Zo community in the district were set on fire, it has been learnt.
Residents said a mob also stormed the Jiribam police station Thursday and demanded that the authorities return their licensed guns, which they had handed over during the election process.
The incident came just two days after the Congress won both Lok Sabha seats in Manipur Tuesday. A deadly ethnic conflict in the state has left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced over the past 13 months.
The deceased has been identified as Soibam Saratkumar Singh from Jiribam’s Sorok Atingbi Khunou locality.
The district administrations of Jiribam and neighbouring Tamenglong have imposed prohibitory measures under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), restricting the movement of individuals outside their residences until further orders. A police control room has also been set up.
Speaking to ThePrint Friday morning, Luikham Lanmiyo, the superintendent of police in Tamenglong, said adequate security measures are in place in areas bordering Jiribam district, which shares its border with Cachar district in Assam.
“We are keeping a close vigil on the movement of any persons crossing from Jiribam to Tamenglong,” said Lanmiyo.
Soibam Romola Devi, the wife of the deceased, has told the media that the family, including her husband and son, were returning from the farm when they noticed a few persons moving suspiciously. According to Romola, she and her son hurried home, but her husband Soibam Saratkumar was left behind. When her son went to look for his father, he found his two-wheeler and a pair of slippers on the roadside.
Soibam Saratkumar was reportedly picked up by “unknown miscreants” while returning from his farm, police sources told ThePrint Friday. After learning that Saratkumar was missing, the Jiribam district police launched a search operation and found his body near a hillside.
While the family had not filed a police complaint, they had verbally informed the police about the incident. After the recovery of Saratkumar’s body, the police registered a case.
Condemning the killing and “cowardly attacks” on both Kuki and Meitei civilians, the Young Kuki Civil Society Organisation (CSO) said the attacks on the Kuki settlements in Jiribam came despite the identity of Saratkumar’s killers remaining unknown.
In a press statement Thursday, the CSO further called for people to adhere to the Jiribam Peace Pact among Kukis, Nagas and Meiteis in the district.
The CSO also said that Saratkumar’s killing is the second such incident in Jiribam after the mutilated body of a Kuki youth, Seigoulen Singson, was found near Moljol village. Missing since 14 May, his body was recovered two days later, the CSO said.
“It is unacceptable for Kukis to be targeted for the death of a Meitei,” added the CSO, demanding a fair investigation and arrests of the culprits at the earliest.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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