Screengrab from the video showing protesters from the Hmar and Kuki communities engaging in a scuffle with police in Silchar, Assam.
Credit: X/@PTI_News
Guwahati: Police resorted to lathi charge outside the Silchar Medical College Hospital (SMCH) on Saturday as family members of 10 militants killed in a gunfight with security personnel in Manipur's Jiribam district, clashed with the forces demanding that the bodies be handed over to them, officials said.
Family members of the 10 militants killed in a gunfight with CRPF personnel on Monday, were camping outside the hospital and demanded that the bodies be handed over to them.
Assam police officials tried to convince them that the bodies will be handed over to Manipur police and that they can take up the matter with them.
The agitated family members refused to accept the proposal and attacked police personnel by pelting stones in which several persons were injured.
Among the injured were four media persons, including a woman journalist.
The police lathi charged the protestors and the situation was brought under control after sometime with the family members agreeing that they will receive the bodies from Manipur police.
The authorities have decided that both Manipur and Assam police will airlift the bodies of the 10 militants to Churachandpur and the process has already begun.
Ten suspected militants belonging to the Hmar community were killed during an encounter with the security forces in Manipur's Jiribam district on Monday, November 11. One CRPF jawan was also injured in the gunfight.
Hundreds of people protested in different parts of Imphal valley on Saturday morning, after three bodies suspected to be of six persons missing were found from Jiribam district.
The protesters, mostly women blocked the main roads in Kwakeithel area in Imphal West district, Sagolband Tera in Imphal West district by burning tyres to prevent vehicular movement, police said.
At Khwairamband market, the main market of Manipur, women vendors staged a protest rally against the killing even as huge security forces were deployed in Imphal, the police said.
As news of the recovery of three bodies spread, business establishments and markets closed down.
Locals also came out on the streets at Ningthoukhong in Bishnupur district and Lamlong in Imphal East district to stage protests against the killing.
The state government has already declared a holiday for schools and colleges on Saturday.
Three bodies of a woman and two children suspected to be of six persons missing from Jiribam district were found near the confluence of Jiri river and Barak river along Manipur-Assam border on Friday night, officials said on Saturday.
The bodies were brought to Assam's Silchar Medical College Hospital (SMCH) on Friday night and kept at the hospital's morgue for postmortem.
Three women and three children who lived in a relief camp have been missing since a gunfight between security forces and militants in Jiribam district on Monday, with Metei organisations alleging that they were kidnapped by the retreating militants. Police said a search was underway for them.
More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic clashes between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.
Ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.
(With DHNS inputs)