Imphal: A Meite woman who married a Kuki man, her son, and a relative are feared dead after a mob set fire to an ambulance in Manipur’s capital Imphal on Sunday. Relatives and residents of the victim’s village gave this information to ‘The Indian Express’.
The attack took place when the ambulance was taking the child to the hospital and the vehicle was being escorted by police personnel. The incident took place in the Iroisemba area of Imphal West under the Lamphel police station area. A senior official of the station said that the vehicle caught fire at around 7 pm on Sunday.
He said, “We could only recover some bones from inside the vehicle.” In this case, an FIR has also been registered by the police the same night, which also includes sections related to murder. According to residents of Kangchup Chingkhok village in Kangpokpi district, the three dead were Meena Hanging, her son Tomshing – whom they said was less than 7 years old – and Meena’s relative Lydia Lourembam.
There are many Kuki villages in the Kangchup area and it is close to Meitei village Phayeng near Imphal West on the border of Kangpokpi district. The region has witnessed heavy firing incidents since May 27 following the second wave of violence across the state. According to Jin Hanging, a relative of the victims and a resident of the village, Tomshing was on his way to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences hospital after he was shot in the head when there was a firing in the area on Sunday.
At least 98 people have lost their lives and more than 310 people have been injured in the ethnic violence that broke out in Manipur a month ago. At present, a total of 37,450 people have taken shelter in 272 relief camps in the state. Caste violence was reported for the first time in the state on May 3 after a ‘tribal solidarity march’ was organized in the hill districts of Manipur to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
