Manipur: Funeral of 10 Kuki-Zo youths on hold till receipt of autopsy reports

Churachandpur: The funeral of 10 Kuki-Zo youths, who were killed in an alleged gunfight with CRPF, will not be conducted till their post-mortem reports were handed over to the families, a leading organisation representing the community said on Sunday.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a key organisation of the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur, has convened an emergency meeting to decide its future course of action regarding the funeral of the 10 people, killed in Jiribam district.

"Today, we will have a meeting on how to proceed with the funeral. We have not received the post-mortem examination documents yet. Without those, we cannot touch the bodies because if we tamper with the bodies, there could be some legality issues," ITLF spokesperson Ginza Vualzong told PTI.

Accordingly, the bodies have been kept in the local hospital morgue for the time being after their arrival here on Saturday, he added.

The post-mortem examination of the 10 Kuki-Zo youths, who ITLF claimed were village volunteers as against the Manipur government's assertion that they were militants, was conducted at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam.

"We are waiting for the documents. I don't know what is going on, may be the things are very fishy! If we do not receive the reports, then we will have to do the post-mortem examination here again. So, the burial will not take place soon unless all these formalities are done," Vualzong said.

He said the Kuki organisation is exploring possibilities to conduct the autopsy again at Churachandpur District Hospital and a final decision will be taken during the meeting of the ITLF senior leaders.

"If we receive the post-mortem examination reports in the meantime, experts in this field will carefully review the documents for any inconsistencies. The ITLF legal cell will take up all legal matters in this regard," Vualzong said.

The Joint Philanthropic Organisation (JPO) will collaborate with the Hmar Inpui to plan the burial programme for the youths, he added.

The bodies of the youths were airlifted to Churachandpur from Assam's Silchar town on Saturday afternoon. SMCH authorities are yet to release the postmortem report of the youths, sources said.

On Saturday in Silchar, police resorted to lathi-charge outside the SMCH as family members of the youths clashed with forces demanding that the bodies be handed over to them.

The Assam Police officials tried convincing them that the bodies would be handed over to Manipur Police and they could take up the matter with them.

The agitated family members refused to accept the proposal and attacked police personnel and resorted to stone pelting, which injured several persons.

They finally agreed to the proposal that both Manipur and Assam Police would airlift the bodies of the 10 youths to Churachandpur. Soon after, the bodies were airlifted and reached Churachandpur in the afternoon.

The Manipur Police on November 11 claimed 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately at Borobekra Police Station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district.

The suspected militants allegedly abducted six civilians, including women and children from the same district, police had claimed.

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.

It started after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

The ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.