Manipur steps up security for mass burial of 35 victims today | India News

GUWAHATI: A delayed mass burial for 35 of the 150-odd victims of the violence raging in Manipur since May 3 is being organised in a village of Churachandpur district on Thursday, prompting a wary security establishment to put all hands on the deck in a bid to ensure there is no flare-up of emotions.

There was a whiff of friction on the eve of the mass burial, with the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity claiming the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) had chosen to hold the ceremony at a site that was within Bishnupur district.

It termed the move “an affront to the people”.
ITLF insisted the burial site at Bualjang village near Haolai Khopi was well within Churachandpur. It said all 35 victims, whose remains were so far kept in the district hospital morgue, would be honoured as “martyrs” at the Peace Ground in Tuibuong before the burial.

“All communities are requested to respect the last rites being performed for the dead. If anyone or any group tries to disrupt the event, they will be responsible for the consequences,” the tribal organisation said.ITLF’s media in-charge Ginza Vualzong said that of the 35 bodies that would be buried, three were of women. “All of them were killed in the violence. Each body has been identified, FIRs lodged and post-mortem done. We will pay our last tributes tomorrow,” he told TOI.
He said 120 more bodies of victims of the conflict were in morgues at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences and the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal. “We have requested the district administration to hand these over to us for burial.”

Earlier in the day, arsonists torched two abandoned houses at Langol in Imphal West district, an official said.
Fire tenders were rushed to the spot in the Langol area and the blaze was doused, he said, adding that no injuries were reported in the incident.
The incident took place during a time gap between the change of guards in the area, he said. This followed an assault on Kom Union Manipur president Serto Ahao Kom near Chingphei village in Churachandpur late Tuesday. He was hospitalised in Imphal.
Manipur Police described the situation in the state “still volatile and tense but under control”.

The state government extended the curfew-free window by an hour from 5am to 8pm in Imphal East and West districts, but left it unchanged from 5am to 5pm in the other valley districts of Thoubal, Kakching and Bishnupur.