In fresh violence in Manipur, four Meitei villagers including a father and a son were killed after being abducted by suspected insurgents in a mountainous area between Churachandpur and Bishnupur district on 11 January. Oinam Romen Meitei (45), Ahanthem Dara Meitei (56), Thoudam Ibomcha Meitei (53) and Thoudam Anand Meitei (27) are the deceased. Two of the four, Ahanthem and his son Thoudam come from the same family.
The state capital Imphal is 45 km away from Bishnupur’s Akasoi hamlet, from where the four men went to a nearby forest to gather firewood during the severe winter on 10th January, according to sources. When they didn’t return after a long time, their families approached the police.
Three bodies were found on 11th January after police along with the villagers searched the forest in Bishnupur’s Kumbi. The body of Ahanthem Dara has not been recovered yet. All three bodies have marks of the headshots, and additionally one of the bodies has a throat slit. Police are still conducting a massive search operation to locate the fourth body.
They were abducted by suspected Kuki militants from the forest, tortured and then killed, according to the complaint filed by the families of the victims.
The four villagers most likely entered the “buffer zone” that separates the two districts on the fateful day while gathering firewood, based on police sources. Social media posts purportedly depict armed individuals wearing camouflage combat gear stating they are the ones responsible for the murders.
According to a report by India Today NE, a fierce gunfight between two sides occurred in the Churachandpur district’s Haotak Phailen hamlet on 10th January at around 3 pm which resulted in the death of four individuals. The settlement lies on the boundary between the districts of Churachandpur and Bishnupur.
The residents of Churachandpur subdivision’s Haotak Phailen village alleged that the shootout between the two groups happened in the community’s forest, 38 kilometres from the district headquarters. They claimed that some residents of Tampha Khunou, a neighbouring hamlet to the northeast of Haotak Phailen village took advantage of their proximity and started chopping firewood illegally in the village’s forest.
They stated that the community volunteers moved quickly to disperse them after learning of the illegal activity taking place in the forest. A ferocious gun battle that lasted more than an hour broke out as the police attempted to stop the illegal activity. Four people who were supposedly involved in wood cutting were killed, but there was no word of any casualties among the volunteers from Haotak Phailen village.
Locals in the Tampha Khunou argued that the deceased were innocent citizens who had gone to collect ginger close to the scene of the shooting while volunteers of the Kuki village charged that they were armed militants. Moreover, the former asserted that Kuki militant organisations were responsible for the four deaths, however, the other side denied this.
Eight months have passed since May 2023 when violence broke out after a demonstration by the Kuki tribes against the Meiteis’ quest for Scheduled Tribes (ST) designation. The former are predominantly hill tribes whereas the latter are predominantly valley tribes. The Meitei-dominated valley district of Bishnupur is 35 km apart from the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur which falls under the category of hill districts.
