In yet another horrific video emerging from Manipur, the body of a tribal man is seen being set on fire in a trench. A police official said the video appeared to be from early May and that they were investigating the case.
The seven-second video, marked as “Kuki”, was shared on several WhatsApp groups in Manipur on October 8. It shows a man, in a black T-shirt and camouflage trousers, lying in a trench. The face has been bludgeoned and the body is on fire. It is not clear if the man was burnt alive.
A representative of a Kuki-Zo organisation said they were trying to ascertain the identity of the person as during the violence, around five or six people from the community were said to have been burnt alive.
Internet blocked
Mobile Internet has been blocked in Manipur since May 3, when ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki-Zo and the majority Meitei people erupted in the State.
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It was briefly restored on September 23, before being blocked again after photos of the bodies of two Meitei students who went missing in July surfaced on social media on September 25, leading to massive protests in the Valley areas.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team arrested four persons, including two women, for the alleged crime. The bodies of the two students are yet to recovered.
On July 19, the video of a May 4 incident reported from Thoubal emerged on social media. The video showed two women who were stripped and paraded by a mob. The police arrested nine people after the video surfaced. Two male relatives of one of the women was killed by the mob which was armed with sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles.
32 missing
At least 175 people have been killed and 1,108 injured since the violence started on May 3 in Manipur. Thirty-two people are still missing in the State.
Altogether, 4,786 houses were set on fire and 386 religious structures vandalised in the violence.
Sporadic violence has continued in the State for the past five months.
Security forces targeted
The Manipur Police said security forces came under fire from armed miscreants on October 8, hours after they foiled an attack in the New Keithelmanbi area on October 7 night.
“Around 4.30 a.m. on Sunday, security forces deployed on northwest periphery of Keithelmanbi detected suspicious movement of some individuals and fired illumination rounds to ascertain their identity. The security forces came under fire and effectively retaliated in a calibrated manner, causing the miscreants to flee. Combing and search operations were thereafter undertaken by security forces. The alertness and calibrated response by the security forces prevented the nefarious designs of the miscreants from being successful,” the police said.
The authorities are yet to recover a large number of weapons and ammunition that were looted during the violence in the State. Around 4,000 weapons and lakhs of ammunition were looted from the police armouries.
On October 8, the District Magistrate of Imphal East, as a “measure of emergency”, ordered that the public was prohibited from taking out procession, rally, protest, unlawful gatherings, public meetings using loud speakers, and so on with immediate effect.
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The police, paramilitary, military persons or any other government servants on official duties, processions or meetings for which prior permission of the District Magistrate has been obtained, customary and ritualistic processions in connection with weddings and funerals, and activities conducted by various departments of the government have been exempted from the order.
