87 bodies laid to rest in a mass burial at Churachandpur

A mass burial of 87 bodies was observed at Manipur's Churachandpur district on Wednesday. The ceremony, held at the Kuki-Zo martyrs cemetery in Sekhen, included tributes, Christian rituals, and a gun salute by village defense volunteers for the lives lost in the ethnic violence. 

“We feel a deep sense of relief as the bodies of so many of our brothers and sisters were laid to rest as per our customs and rituals. It was a long wait for the families who lost their dear ones. Now the struggle for justice for those killed and the demand for a separate administration for Kuki-Zo people will continue,” said Ngaineikim, president, Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights.

Following a Supreme Court directive that had instructed the state government to facilitate a “dignified and decent” burial of those who had lost their lives by December 11, the bodies of the deceased that were kept in various government mortuaries were finally airlifted in IAF choppers from Imphal and Churachandpur and handed over to the bereaved families. 

The bereaved families bid a final adieu to their loved ones. The coffins, adorned with traditional shawls and wreaths, were then interred in the graves. Among those laid to rest in Churachandpur, the eldest victim was a 70-year-old woman named Domkhohoi Haokip, and the youngest was an infant merely one month old.

The mass burial was observed under heightened security measures, prompted by a district-wide curfew imposed on Monday night for a two-month duration until February 18, to avoid any untoward clashes and prevent any further loss of lives. 

Since May 3, ethnic tensions in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, have claimed at least 196 and displaced over 50,000 people.