On Friday, bodies of a woman and two children were discovered floating in the Barak River at Jirimukh in the war-torn Jiribam in Manipur, raising fears that these could be those of three of six missing prisoners from a camp for the displaced where security forces executed 10 Hmar “militants” on November 11.
According to a security official, the victims were discovered by locals and taken to Silchar Medical College and hospital in nearby south Assam for identification and autopsy.
The official stated, “Since so many children were reported missing for five days, we are unable to verify whether the three bodies are of those among the three women. We must wait for the results of the autopsy”.
The reported missing are a 60-yr-old woman, a 31-yr-old woman and her 8-yr-old daughter, and a 25-yr-old woman and her 8-month-old daughter and 2-yr-old son.
According to Manipur police, two senior officials were assigned to Jiribam and Borobekra to oversee and coordinate operations by various teams to find the 6 missing individuals.
The Jiribam Police station’s officer-in-charge, Inspector Sagapam Ibotombi Singh, resigned from his position amid all this, citing “unavoidable circumstances of my family and other reasons”. According to sources, he was transferred out right away.
The police unit that joined the CRPF in the counteroffensive after an attack on two parliamentary force installations was led by Singh, who was twice awarded the President’s medal for Gallantry. According to the Kuki-Zo community, the 10 “militants” who were murdered in retaliatory gunfire were Hmar “volunteers” defending their towns against invader onslaught.
