Guwahati: Bodies of a woman and two children, suspected to be among the six persons missing from Jiribam district, were found near the confluence of Jiri and Barak Rivers along the Manipur-Assam border, officials said on Saturday.
The bodies were found around 16 km from Borobekra in Jiribam district on Friday night. This is the same area from where the six persons went missing on Monday.
While they are yet to be identified, it is suspected that the three bodies are those of the six who went missing. The unidentified bodies were brought to Assam's Silchar Medical College Hospital (SMCH) on Friday night and kept at the hospital's morgue for postmortem. An official said that it is yet to be confirmed that the bodies are that of the missing persons.
He said that they are waiting for the postmortem to be conducted and have collected the photographs for identification. Autopsies of bodies found in Imphal's Jiribam are done in Assam's Silchar Medical College Hospital due to a lack of infrastructural facilities in the town.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh held a meeting with senior ministers on Friday night to discuss the situation after the news of the recovery of the bodies, officials said.
Meanwhile, as news of the recovery of three bodies spread across Imphal Valley, tension rose in all five districts with state authorities declaring a holiday for schools and colleges on Saturday.
The alleged abduction
Earlier on Thursday, the Delhi Meitei Co-ordinating Committee (DMCC) had appealed to the Central and the state government to ensure the safe release of the six people including one infant and two minors, allegedly abducted by Chin-Kuki insurgents on Monday when security forces killed 10 militants at Jiribam.
DNCC spokesperson Lisham Santhalembi said that the victims, including three women, two children and an eight-month-old, were abducted from Jiribam's Jakuradhor Karong and taken towards the Barak River.
The six victims -- Yurembam Rani Devi (61), Telam Thoibi Devi (31), Laishram Heitonbi Devi (25), Laishram Chinghheinganba (2), Telam Thajamanbi (8) and the infant Laishram Langamba -- were among a group of 13 Meiteis displaced from their homes in June and residing near the CRPF camp in Jakuradhor and the Borobekra police station. They were abducted from the same place where security forces killed 10 insurgents on November 11.
Santhalembi said the heinous crime marked by the abduction of women and children calls for immediate and serious interventions from the highest levels of the government.
"If the leadership does not act promptly to secure their release, this could deepen public mistrust and fuel perceptions that the government is complicit in perpetuating violence for political ends, including the potential division of Manipur along ethnic lines," she said. (Agency inputs)
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