New Delhi: “It was right after lunchtime. Armed men barged into our house and forced my grandmother, my two aunts, and three young cousins into a car and took them away,” said a 15-year-old Meitei girl who Monday witnessed the “abduction” of six family members in Manipur’s Jiribam.
“We kept screaming for help, but they threatened to kill those abducted if we resisted,” the girl told ThePrint over the phone.
It was 1 pm Monday when the alleged abduction took place in the 15-year-old’s house, some 50-60 metres from the Borobekra police station in Manipur’s Jiribam. The police have confirmed that six people, including women and children, are missing.
The “abduction” comes amid the fresh spate of violence that has broken out in Manipur. A “gunfight” between the CRPF and “militants” Monday left 10 dead in the Jiribam district.
The 15-year-old narrated her family’s ordeal: “We were getting ready for a nap after lunch. They barged into our house with weapons and started shouting at us. Eight of us were at home at the time.”
“We do not know where my grandmother is now. My cousins are very young. One is eight years old, another 2.5 years, and the third eight months,” she said.
According to police sources, police teams are attempting to trace the family members, who have been missing for two days now, but there is no intel yet.
“We learned from a Facebook page that this incident occurred, but no one has claimed responsibility. We have been getting in touch with groups, but they are denying any involvement,” a police source earlier told ThePrint.
The police are in talks with Kuki groups, but there is no confirmation yet on whether the civilians are in their custody.
“I do not remember exactly how many of them (abductors) were there because some were waiting outside. Four to five men pulled out my relatives from the house,” the 15-year-old said. “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.”
The missing have been identified as Yurembham Rani Devi (60), Telam Thoibi Devi (31), Laishram Heitonbi Devi (25), and three children.
“We are now worried about the return of my grandmother, aunts, and cousins without any harm. We are anxious that they (abductors) will kill them,” the 15-year-old said.
Conflicting accounts have emerged of Monday’s “gunfight”.
According to the police, the suspected militants opened fire at the CRPF outpost at Jiribam’s Jakuradhor, as well as attacked the Borobekra police station in the district with “heavy sophisticated weapons”. The security forces, they said, retaliated, and the exchange of fire led to the deaths of the 10 “militants” while one CRPF constable was injured.
However, Thangtinlen Haokip, the information secretary of the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), sees Monday’s violence as a continuation of last week’s violence in Hmar-dominated Zairawn village, where houses were torched and a woman was sexually assaulted and shot.
Saying it is unfair to label the deceased Kuki men as “militants”, Haokip asserted they were “village defence volunteers” who had been agitated after the Zairawn incident and were following the Arambai Tenggol and state forces. They, he said, dropped their weapons after the CRPF asked them to negotiate, but the forces still fired on them.
Later on Tuesday, the police recovered the bodies of two elderly Meitei men during search operations in the Jakuradhor area.
Asked about the abducted women and children, Haokip said he did not have any information. According to the security forces, they are talking to Kuki groups.
The Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MCPCR) has released a statement, appealing for the release of the “abduction” women and children without any condition on humanitarian grounds.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
What is govt doing seriously?
How can’t they stop a fight between ethnic groups in Manipur?
Yahi banoge vishwaguru