Bodies of 10 Kuki militants airlifted to CCpur amid clashes with police
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, November 16 2024: In a tense situation, the bodies of 10 Kuki-Zo militants who were killed in a recent gunfight with se-curity forces in Jiribam district were airlifted from Silchar in Assam to Churachandpur on Saturday.

The autopsies of the deceased had been conducted at the Silchar Medical College Hospital (SMCH) prior to the transfer.

The situation outside the SMCH grew volatile earlier in the day when a large group of Kuki-Zo supporters gathered, demanding that the bodies be released directly to them.

The crowd, expressing solidarity with the militants, clashed with police forces when their demands were not met, prompting law enforcement to resort to a baton-charge in an attempt to disperse the crowd and restore order.

Bodies of 10 Kuki militants airlifted to CCpur amid clashes with police

Assam Police officials at the scene tried to de-escalate the situation by explaining that the bodies would be handed over to Manipur Police and advised the protesters to coor-dinate with authorities in Manipur for further arrangements.

However, the explanation did little to appease the crowd, which responded by at-tacking police personnel and pelting stones.

The altercation resulted in injuries to several people, including four journalists, one of whom was a female reporter.

The situation reached a critical point until Cachar SP Numal Mahatta intervened, warning the protesters that any further violence would be met with strict action.

He informed them that the bodies would be trans-ported to Churachandpur, where they could be collected peacefully.

This assurance from the SP led to the mob agreeing to the arrangement.

Subsequently, a coordinated effort by both Manipur and Assam Police saw the bodies airlifted from Silchar to Churachandpur on Saturday af-ternoon.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 10 Ku-ki- Zo arrived in Churachandpur by an Army MI-17 helicopter, at Khuga am at 2:40 pm.

Upon their arrival at the 37th Battalion Assam Rifles base at Khuga Dam, various organ-isations, including JP Os, CSOs, and leaders from joint student bodies, were present to receive them.

However, confusion arose after the bodies were unloaded, as no copies of the post mortem reports were provided.

Suspecting irregularities, an emergency meeting was convened by the leaders of the groups to decide whether the bodies should be offi-cially received.

Following delibera-tions, it was decided that the bodies would not be officially accepted until the post mortem results were made available.

Subsequently, the bodies were moved to the district hospital morgue.

It is worth mentioning that the names of the deceased have not been disclosed at this time.