Khuga dam area chosen for mass burial
Source: Chronicle News Service

Churachandpur, December 14 2023: All 41 bodies that have been lying in RIMS and JNIMS mortuaries for the past seven months were airlifted to Churachandpur on Thursday.

The transportation, carried out by helicopter in four sorties starting from 1 pm, saw 19 bodies flown to Kangpokpi.

Leaders of the Joint Philanthropic Organisation (JPO) now anticipate laying the Kuki-Zo tribal members to rest at their final resting place.

According to sources from JPO convenor, Laldawnlian, approximately 10 individuals are still missing, and it is their duty to try and locate their whereabouts.

Expressing gratitude on behalf of JPO to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Laldawnlian commended the ministry for translating the agreed-upon terms into action by bringing back the bodies of their dear ones to Churachandpur.

He further stated that all the bodies from Imphal have now reached Churachandpur.

Upholding their assurance to the MHA, Laldawnlian said, the burial site would be near the Khuga dam site, close to Sehken village.

He reiterated that groundwork, including the levelling of the approach road and jungle clearance, has commenced as nothing could be done before the bodies arrived.

The date and time for the burial will be determined after a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Churachandpur on Thursday night, he added.

The Supreme Court had formed a committee in August of three former high court judges - Gita Mittal, Shalini Joshi and Asha Menon - to look into the investigation, relief, remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation in violence-stricken Manipur.

Subsequently, on the committee's report, the apex court; issued directives for the burial or cremation of those killed in the ethnic violence in the state, including the 88 people who were identified but their bodies not claimed by their family members, by December 11."Either the relatives of the deceased can accept the bodies and perform the last rites at any of the nine burial sites identified by the Manipur government or the state can go ahead and do the same in accordance with municipal laws," the court had ordered.

Twenty-four more bodies, believed to be of Kukis, were at the Churachandpur morgue.

The tribals had refused to bury those until the bodies from Imphal were brought.

"We are expecting that these bodies would also be claimed and the last rites performed, an official said.

According to the report, 175 deaths were reported during the ethnic clashes and 169 bodies identified.

The top court noted that of the 169 identified bodies, only 81 were claimed by the relatives of the victims.

The committee report had said 94 unclaimed bodies were being preserved in mortuaries maintained by state authorities and added that preserving a large number of bodies for a long period is a drain on the state's exchequer and a failure to perform the last rites would amount to showing disrespect to the dead.

The apex court had also agreed that it would not be either appropriate or proper to keep the bodies that have not been identified or claimed indefinitely in the mortuaries and said "we do not want to keep the pot boiling on dead bodies".

For the unidentified bodies, the court had allowed the state to carry out burial or cremation with due observance of religious rites.

The ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3 after a "Tribal Solidarity March" was organised in the hill districts of the state to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal valley: Tribals - Nagas and Kukis - constitute little more than 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts ' as well as in the plains.

(With inputs from Agencies) .

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