2 men found dead day after 10 militants killed in Manipur gunfight

The bodies of two Meitei men were recovered from houses in Manipur’s Jiribam district on Nov 12 morning, a day after security forces shot dead 10 suspected militants in the area, police said.

Six people who were living in a relief camp in the area have been missing since the gunfight on Nov 11.

Police identified the deceased as Laishram Barel Singh (63) and Maibam Keshwo Singh (71). Their bodies were recovered by police from houses in the Jakuradhor area.

According to local residents, the two had been staying at a relief camp at Borobekra police station and were among 10 people from the camp who have gone missing since Nov 11 gunfight.

A major gunfight between armed men believed to be from the Hmar community and security forces took place in Jakuradhor and Borobekra areas in Jiribam district, close to the hills of neighboring Hmar-majority Pherzawl district on Nov 11 afternoon.

According to police, the gunfight took place after a CRPF post located at Jakuradhor and the nearby Borobekra police station came under fire. Local residents were quoted as saying the suspected militants had also attacked homes and shops in Meitei settlements in the area on Nov 11.

A local resident Yurembam Sanjoy Singh was quoted as saying at least 118 people had been staying at the relief camp set up in the police station for residents of nearby villages after violence and arson had first gripped the area in June this year.

The rest of the Meitei people displaced from this area are staying in relief camps at Jiribam district headquarters.

“During the daytime, the people residing in the relief camp head outside. When the firing and arson started on Nov 11, people began running here and there and after it subsided, we found that 10 people from the relief camp had been missing.”

“This morning, the two bodies were found and two others were found alive… Six people – three women and three children – are still missing and we are very afraid about their safety and whereabouts,” he added.

A police official was quoted as saying six people continue to be missing after the violence.

The incident on Nov 11 marked the highest number of casualties in a single day this year in the ongoing conflict in the state.

It comes days after a 31-year-old woman from the Hmar community was killed in an attack on her village on Nov 7. Hmar groups were quoted as saying those killed on Nov 11 were “village volunteers” who were “retaliating” against the woman’s killing.