After seven months, tribals in Manipur finally lay their dead to rest

The last rites of the 23 Kuki-Zo tribals, killed in Manipur’s ethnic violence more than seven months ago, were performed on Friday with thousands of men and women, including their kin, attended the mass burial ceremony in Kangpokpi district.

The 23 deceased, including seven-year-old Tonsing Hangshing and his mother, were finally laid to rest at Martyrs’ Cemetery in Phaijang village, about 20 km from Kangpokpi district headquarters.

Under the theme 'you sacrifice your today for our tomorrow', the mass burial programme was organised by Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), Sadar Hills, an apex Kuki civil society organisation in Kangpokpi.

On Thursday, a total of 60 bodies of people belonging to the Kuki-Zo community were flown from Imphal to Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts by Indian Air Force helicopters.

Similarly, the bodies of four victims belonging to the Meitei community and lying in the Churachandpur district hospital morgue since the ethnic conflict erupted on 3 May were also airlifted to Imphal valley for their last rites. The last rites of the remaining deceased will be performed in a day or two, a CoTU spokesperson said.

The airlifting exercises of the bodies which were lying in morgues in Imphal and Churachandpur took place only after the Supreme Court issued a directive last month to the state government for the dignified disposal of unclaimed bodies.

According to state officials, of the 64 bodies, 60 were lying in morgues of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) and the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) since the beginning of ethnic riots in the first week of May.

The CoTU called a 12-hour total shutdown within Sadar Hills of Kangpokpi on Friday to conduct the funeral services and appealed to the people to cooperate with them.

The Supreme Court had formed a committee in August of three former high court judges — Gita Mittal, Shalini Joshi, and Asha Menon — to look into the investigation, relief, remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation in violence-devastated Manipur.

Considering the committee's report, the apex court issued directives for the burial or cremation of those killed in ethnic violence, including the 88 people who were identified but their bodies not claimed by family members.

The last rites of burial or cremation were to take place in nine sites identified by the Manipur government, or the state could go ahead and do the same in accordance with municipal laws.

Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur more than seven months ago after a 'tribal solidarity march' was organised in the hill districts of the state to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Ethnic clashes between non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki communities have so far officially claimed 182 lives, injured several hundred and displaced more than 70,000 people of both communities.