Lamka: Dec 20, 2023
The bodies of 87 Kuki-Zo victims of ethnic violence were finally laid to rest in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Wednesday. They were airlifted to the site following the Supreme Court’s direction to ensure dignified burials for 175 bodies that had been lying in mortuaries since ethnic violence erupted on May 3.
A condolence service was organised at the ground in Tuibuong followed by the mass burial at a tribal martyrs’ park amid restrictions imposed under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after a violent clash on Monday night over the burial left many injured.
Forty-one of the bodies were airlifted from mortuaries in Imphal and 46 bodies from Churachandpur district hospital on December 14 using Indian Air Force helicopters. Twenty-eight bodies were sent to Kangpokpi, another Kuki-Zo majority district, and four bodies were taken to Imphal from the Churachandpur district hospital’s morgue.
Six months after the clashes erupted, the Supreme Court directed the state government to ensure proper and dignified burials for the bodies of people who lost their lives in the violence. The directions were based on a report submitted by the Justice Gita Mittal committee, which was formed by the apex court on August 7 to oversee the rehabilitation of the victims.
The committee said in its report that 175 bodies were awaiting burials and that out of them, 81 had been claimed by relatives, 88 were still unclaimed and six were lying unidentified.