Heirok tragedy; Last rites not held after 'march' from morgue
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 28: Amidst tight security and heart-rending cries of despair and harsh condemnations from hundreds of people, the corpses of the three youths killed in the firing incident at a Thabal Chongba venue at Heirok Part II Laikon Maning in the night of March 24 have been claimed today.

People of Heirok carrying the bodies from RIMS morgue

Though the bodies have been taken back, the final rites were yet to be completed with the bodies still kept intact and the people staging a rally at Heirok, till the time of filing this report at 10.30 pm.

Skipping their lunch, a large number of people using all kinds of vehicles including two wheelers, jeeps, cars, Tata DIs and buses numbering about 100 started for RIMS mortuary since early morning.

Pained and hurt as they were, a large number of people showing solidarity to the bereaved families who could not get inside the buses were seen travelling on the roofs of the vehicles.

However, the vehicles were blocked by security personnel at Lilong.

From there, the vehicles were escorted by security personnel towards Imphal.

As the vehicles reached Lilong, all the shops of Lilong Bazar were shut on the insistence of the security personnel.

The crowd although choked with emotions shouted various slogans expressing grief and condemnation all along their journey.

They were again stopped by security force at Singjamei Bazar.

From there, the vehicles were forced to divert towards Kongba road and then to Hapta Kangjeibung.

At Hapta Kangjeibung, police asked the crowd to stay there with their vehicles while instructing only a few of them to proceed towards RIMS mortuary.

This enraged the crowd and resulted in a heated argument with the security personnel.

The crowd assured they would not cause any unwanted incident but would only take the corpses.

At this juncture MLAs M Oken of Heirok A/C, M Hemanta of Wangjing-Tentha A/C, K Govindas of Bishnupur A/C and Y Surchandra of Kakching A/C arrived there and tried their best to pacify the crowd.

As the large crowd insisted to go together to the morgue, the MLAs led the crowd with security guards till RIMS morgue.

The MLAs and the crowd travelled along Checkon, North AOC, Khongnang Karak, Thangmeiband and Lamphelpat.

On seeing the bodies, the crowd broke down.

At RIMS morgue, police took up stringent security measures.

On their return journey, the crowd took the corpses along Uripok, Naoremthong, Tera Bazar, Kwakeithel and then towards the native villages of the victims.

Slogans including their demand to provide them guns were raised.

The victims are Th Promila, L Nirmala and Th Romesh.