Imphal/New Delhi:

A 10-month-old baby who was among six family members kidnapped and killed by “Kuki militants” in Manipur’s Jiribam district on November 11 was shot in the knee, stabbed on the chest, and hit with a blunt object on the jaw, according to the postmortem report shared by the family.

Laishram Lamnganba Singh was last seen on his mother’s lap in a photograph that surfaced on a public WhatsApp channel called ‘Zogam News’, a day after all six members of the same family from the Meitei community were kidnapped from Jiribam by suspects who the Manipur government in a cabinet resolution called “Kuki militants”.

The WhatsApp channel formed in March this year and which had 12,000 subscribers has shut down, with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) looking into the case now.

All the six bodies were found floating in a river in Jiribam between November 15 and 18. While the autopsies were done on all the six bodies last week, only three reports were released. The other three reports came out today.

Both eyeballs were missing, and maggots were present in the infant’s body which was found in an advanced stage of putrefaction, the autopsy report said. There were bruises all over the face and a sharp cut in the abdomen. The “chop wound” on the infant’s chest fractured the ribs, the autopsy report said.

The body of 8-year-old Telem Thajamanbi Devi was also found in an early stage of decomposition with maggots in some parts of the body. She suffered a bullet wound in her shoulder, which pierced through the heart, lung and ribs and exited, the autopsy report said.

Her mother, Telem Thoiboi Devi, 31, was shot four times in the chest, the report said. Her head had been crushed, it said. Thoiboi Devi’s body was decomposed and both eyes were dislodged from the sockets; her scalp was lacerated at many places and the skull bone was broken and pushed in, according to the autopsy report.

The postmortem reports of the infant’s mother L Heitonbi Devi, 25, his grandmother Y Rani Devi, 60 and his 3-year-old brother, which were released last week, found they were all shot dead.

The autopsy reports of two senior citizens from the Meitei community who were killed by “Kuki militants” on the same day the family was kidnapped show both died of severe burn injuries. The militants had set some houses on fire after attacking the police station in Jiribam’s Borobekra village.

The bodies of Maibam Kesho Meitei, 72, and Laishram Baren Meitei, 64, were found during a search operation hours after 10 “Kuki militants” were shot dead in an encounter with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), police sources had said.

Intelligence sources said the public WhatsApp channel ‘Zogam News’, which first shared the photo of the kidnapped family, may have shut down; however, investigators can use legal means to order the messenger’s parent firm Meta to share the logs, which can find the details of the phone number, SIM card and its owner, and last tower location, apart from other content.

Civil society organisations of the Kuki tribes claim the 10 men killed in the encounter were “village volunteers”, an allegation the police and other authorities have refuted strongly, pointing at the weapons brought by the militants and numerous bullet holes in a police SUV.

Political leaders across party lines have condemned the killing of women and children in Manipur. Most have said the latest incident was a terror attack considering it was not a skirmish between two communities in a riot-like situation, but a calculated, premeditated kidnapping operation with an intention to kill them.

The latest round of violence in Jiribam began on November 7 when suspected Meitei insurgents attacked a village of the Hmar tribe. A woman from the Hmar tribe was killed in the attack. Her husband in a police case alleged she was shot in the leg, raped and then set on fire by the suspected Meitei militants. Civil society groups of the Kuki tribes have accused the Manipur government of keeping silent on that attack.

The Manipur cabinet in a statement on November 16 had said “Kuki miscreants” burnt several houses and attacked Borobekra police station in Jiribam district on October 19. This attack and not the November 7 attack led to a fresh cycle of violence, sources have said.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Imphal/New Delhi:

The bodies of three women were brought to a morgue in Assam’s Silchar on Friday, amid tension in neighbouring Manipur’s Jiribam district after three women and three children were taken hostage by suspected Kuki militants on Monday.

The bodies are yet to be identified, sources at the morgue who have seen the bodies told NDTV. The morgue is at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMHC), some 50 km from Jiribam. The bodies were brought to the morgue at 7 pm on Friday, sources said, adding autopsies of bodies found in Jiribam are done in SMHC due to lack of proper infrastructure in the town.

An infant and a two-and-half-year old child are among the three children who were taken hostage on Monday. The three women hostages include the mother of the two younger children. All are from the Meitei community.

They were kidnapped by a group of suspected Kuki militants from Jiribam’s Bokobera neighbourhood while another group of militants were engaged in a gunfight with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), sources have said.

Ten of the suspected Kuki militants were shot dead in the encounter.

Laisharam Herojit, a low-level worker in the state government, in an interview to NDTV on Wednesday appealed to any group that may have held his family hostage to release them safely. He said a friend of his wife saw them being taken away on a boat by armed people.

The CRPF camp and the police station in Jiribam’s Borobekra are less than 1 km from the Barak River.

Mr Herojit told NDTV he got a call from his wife when shooting and arson broke out in Borobekra on Monday. The call got disconnected and when he dialled her back, he found the phone was switched off.

“She was crying on the phone. She said they were surrounded by a lot of armed people. The call got disconnected, after which I called her back, but the mobile was switched off. My mother-in-law’s phone was also switched off. About an hour later – and we had been searching for a while – a Bengali friend of my wife told us she saw them being taken away in a boat,” Mr Herojit told NDTV.

The Kuki tribes have claimed those who were killed in the encounter were “village volunteers”, an allegation that CRPF and police sources have denied.

The security forces have released what they claimed were weapons – AK and INSAS assault rifles and a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher – recovered from the encounter site, and visuals of police vehicles with numerous bullet holes.

Imphal/New Delhi:

The police have found six bodies five days after three women and three children, including an eight-month-old, from the Meitei community were taken hostage by suspected Kuki insurgents from Manipur’s Jiribam district, neighbouring Assam, top sources in the state government told NDTV on Saturday morning.

The bodies of a woman and two children were brought to a morgue in Assam’s Silchar on Friday night, amid tension in neighbouring Jiribam district.

Last night, sources at the morgue in Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) who saw the bodies told NDTV that the bodies of three women were brought there. They said initial examination of the bodies indicated they were adults.

This morning, the sources confirmed two of the bodies were of children and one was of a woman. The corpses had bloated due to some decomposition, they said.

Post-noon, top government sources told NDTV three more bodies were found, taking the total to six; these three bodies are yet to be brought to SMCH, and also yet to be identified.

Laisharam Herojit, a low-level worker in the state government, whose two children, wife, mother-in-law and wife’s sister were among the hostages, told NDTV this morning that he is yet to see the bodies. All are from the Meitei community.

The morgue is at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH), some 50 km from Jiribam. The first three bodies were brought to the morgue at 7 pm on Friday, sources said, adding autopsies of bodies found in Jiribam are done in SMCH due to lack of proper infrastructure in the town.

The women and children were taken hostage by a group of suspected Kuki militants from Jiribam’s Bokobera neighbourhood while another group of militants were engaged in a gunfight with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), sources have said.

Ten of the suspected Kuki militants were shot dead in the encounter.

Mr Herojit told NDTV on Wednesday a friend of his wife saw them being taken away on a boat by armed people on Monday. He said he got a call from his wife when shooting and arson broke out in Borobekra on Monday. The call got disconnected and when he dialled her back, he found the phone was switched off.

The CRPF camp and the police station in Jiribam’s Borobekra are less than 1 km from the Barak River.

“She was crying on the phone. She said they were surrounded by a lot of armed people. The call got disconnected, after which I called her back, but the mobile was switched off. My mother-in-law’s phone was also switched off. About an hour later – and we had been searching for a while – a Bengali friend of my wife told us she saw them being taken away in a boat,” Mr Herojit said on Wednesday.

The Kuki tribes have claimed those who were killed in the encounter were “village volunteers”, an allegation that CRPF and police sources have denied.

The security forces have released what they claimed were weapons – AK and INSAS assault rifles and a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher – recovered from the encounter site, and visuals of police vehicles with numerous bullet holes.

Kukis Protest Outside Morgue

A group of people from the Kuki tribes surrounded SMCH and began a protest to block the transport of the 10 bodies kept in the morgue since Monday. They claimed the 10 Kuki men killed in the encounter were “village volunteers”.

The protesters this morning blocked policemen who tried to take the 10 bodies out of the hospital for transport to Manipur’s Kuki-dominated Churachandpur. The Kukis want the bodies to be handed over to them in Silchar, from where they plan to take the body towards neighbouring Mizoram.

Government officials and the police tried to convince them, but after nearly an hour of discussion, police started pushing the protesters. The protesters also pushed back and some police officers fell on the ground, which led to a lathi-charge.

The Assam Police are on high alert in the area.