Manipur police trying to identify 3 bodies found in Barak river, days after 6 people were abducted nearby

Imphal Valley-based civil society organisations have been alleging that the six missing persons were kidnapped by retreating militants after their attack at the Borobekra police station was thwarted by security forces

Four days after three children and three women were allegedly abducted by armed militants in Jiribam district during an encounter with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the police, the Manipur police are yet to trace the victims.

A government source told The Hindu that the police found three bodies, of a woman and two children, floating in the Barak river on Friday (November 15, 2024) afternoon and are ascertaining their identity.

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“We cannot definitively say that the bodies belong to the missing victims, we are waiting for the postmortem report. The bodies were, however, found close to the location from where the abductions took place,” said the source.  

Tracing photo of victims

A photograph of the victims circulated on social media on November 12, where they can be seen huddled together in a forested area, indicating that they had been abducted.

The government source said that the photograph was first posted on Facebook, and police are trying to trace the originating account and its linked phone number.

Those who were abducted include a 25-year-old woman and her two children, an eight-month-old and a two-year-old boy, a 31-year-old woman and her eight-year-old daughter, and a 60-year old woman. All six are from the same family.

Armed militants

Laisharam Herojit is a policeman and the father of two of the missing children. He told The Hindu that, in September, he had sent his family to his mother’s home in Jiribam for their safety as he was posted in another volatile area. Mr. Herojit filed a police complaint on Friday (November 15, 2024) with the help of senior policemen, though he could not travel to Jiribam.

“I last spoke to my wife at around 3:30 p.m. on November 11. She was hiding under the bed with the children when they [armed militants] entered the house. We spoke for 30 to 40 seconds and then the call was disconnected. I have not heard anything from them since,” Mr. Herojit said, adding that he had only received his family’s photograph after it had gone viral on social media.

The missing women and children were part of a group of people who were displaced from their homes in June after large-scale violence erupted for the first time in Jiribam. The district — which lies near the Assam border and has a mixed population of around 13 communities — had remained peaceful since May 3, 2023 when ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities erupted in the State. More than 240 people have been killed in the State so far.

The women and children went missing as armed militants came looking for Meitei people before they attacked the CRPF camp and the police station next to it. The victims were living in the camp’s vicinity. The area had been on edge since November 7 when armed miscreants captured, and burned a Hmar woman to death, apart from torching at least a dozen houses.

Police coordination

Manipur police said on Friday (November 15, 2024) that “senior officers of the IG (Inspector General) and DIG (Deputy Inspector General) ranks of Manipur Police are presently stationed in Jiribam and Borobekra areas for supervision and coordination of efforts by forces regarding the 06 (six) missing persons.”

The official said that the central security agencies and the Assam Rifles were in touch with the Kuki-Zo-Hmar civil society groups but they have denied any knowledge about the abductions.

Inspector Sagapam Ibotombi Singh, the officer-in-charge at Jiribam police station, resigned from service on Friday (November 15, 2024), a day after he was shunted from the post.

Mr. Singh is a recipient of the President’s Medal for Gallantry. In a letter addressed to the Director General of Police, Manipur, he said that he joined the police in 2007 as an assistant sub-inspector and was promoted to the inspector rank in 2016 but would now like to tender his resignation from service “voluntarily” due to “unavoidable circumstances” in the family and “other reasons”.

Published - November 15, 2024 10:58 am IST