Manipur unrest: 61-year-old woman’s body found floating in Assam

Two others including a two-year-old from Manipur’s Jiribam district remain missing

The body of a 61-year-old woman, likely among the six people who armed militants allegedly abducted from Jiribam in Manipur on November 11, was found floating at Lakhipur in Assam on Sunday (November 17, 2024) morning. A police official said that the identification process is on.

Bodies of three others were found on November 14. Two others including a two-year-old remain missing.

Manipur’s Imphal Valley relapsed into chaos on Saturday (November 16, 2024) after unconfirmed reports that the bodies of all six persons, believed to be women and children missing since November 11, 2024, had been recovered from a river along the State’s border with Assam.

As protestors took to the streets, setting vehicles ablaze and attacking the residences of several MLAs in the State’s capital Imphal, the government temporarily suspended internet and mobile data services in seven affected districts of the valley, which is dominated by the non-tribal Meiteis, and the surrounding hills where the tribal Kuki-Zos are in a majority. Curfew was also clamped in the three valley districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, and Bishnupur.

At least 17 people have been killed in the State since November 7. Barring one, all deaths have been reported from Jiribam. This mixed-population district erupted in violence this June, more than a year after the ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo people began on May 3, 2023.

Manipur Police said on Sunday that eight persons were injured on Saturday night as police resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse the “irate” mob.

On November 16, “irate mobs have targeted various houses and properties of public representatives including Ministers and MLAs of the State in Imphal. Police have resorted to firing tear gas shells etc. to disperse the mob,” police said.

Further, 23 persons who were part of the mob indulging in ransacking and arson of the houses above have been arrested from Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur Districts and recovered 01 (one) .32 pistol, 07 rounds of SBBL, 08 nos. of mobile phones from their possession, it added.

Total curfew has been immediately clamped in Imphal until further orders, police said.

Internet and mobile data services have been suspended for two days immediately, It added.

Published - November 17, 2024 09:06 am IST