Of human skulls and skeletal remains : Dead men tell no tale
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 29, 2014 -

Skulls and skeletons discovered from the campus of now shut down Tombisana High School :: Pix - TSE

Dead men tell no tale.

However dead bodies or mortal remains do tell a story of undiluted truth and it is not without reason why numerous murder mysteries have been solved after minutely studying the lifeless bodies of anyone.

And it is this premise which gives hope that the skeletal remains unearthed from the campus of Tombisana High School a few days back will tell the real story, after scientific analyses.

The Sangai Express does not have the exact date and year when the school was closed down to give way to security personnel but the record must be there with the Government.

From what has been gathered so far, the campus where Tombisana High School once stood was used to house the Border Security Force, CRPF and State police.

This was at that point of time when the BSF and the CRPF men were extensively deployed for counter-insurgency operations.

The State police too were and are still actively engaged in neutralising the threats, real or perceived, from the numerous militant groups active and operating in Manipur and not surprisingly other political parties, notably the MPP and the BJP have jumped into the fray to target the State Government, which is under the Congress.

The Families of Involuntarily Disappeared Persons, Manipur (FIDAM) too has jumped in and demanded that the State Government come out with an explanation over the discovery of the skeletal remains at the school campus.

The list of persons who have disappeared is long and all the more reason why the State Government and Delhi should use all the resources available at their disposal to identify the skeletal remains unearthed a few days back and accordingly start taking up the necessary measures.

That eight skulls and numerous skeletons were discovered at the site tell a significant story.

Not at all likely that the eight persons were killed in one go, thereby implying that they may have been killed over a period of time.

Again it would not have been possible for any criminal or murderer to sneak up to the place at any time of the day and carried out the killings.

In all likelihood the victims were brought there and then killed.

This raises the question of what the security personnel occupying the site of the school were doing when such killings were going on.

Not at all likely that the killings were carried out before the security personnel occupied the said premises.

These are all probabilities at the moment, but probables which give an uncomfortable thought.

Significant to note too that numerous people have disappeared without a trace, with the fingers of suspicion pointed to the security personnel.

The discovery of the skulls and skeletal remains has only added more weight and substance to this suspicion and this is precisely the reason why Imphal and Delhi should leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of the matter and come up with a convincing story.

Not the time for some half baked theories to fool the public.