GUWAHATI: The bodies of 13 individuals, including at least five teenagers, who lost their lives in a gunfight involving unknown armed miscreants in Manipur on Monday, have been identified. The tragic incident unfolded at Leithao village near Saibol in the Tengnoupal district, a region plagued by ethnic violence and sharing a porous border with Myanmar.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Manipur police said the 13 were “killed in a gunfight between unknown armed miscreants” at Leithao village near Saibol in the Tengnoupal district. The police said they registered a case and were conducting a probe.
Following the recovery of the bodies, the police brought them to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in state capital Imphal. The grieving families expressed their anger over the incident and slammed the state government for failing to protect lives.
The grieving families collectively decided to perform the last rites at Andro in the Imphal East district.
The Congress expressed concern over the incident. Party leader Jairam Ramesh said it’s been seven months now and the situation in Manipur continued to be far from normal.
“…Just yesterday, came news of a fresh round of violence which took the lives of thirteen people. Earlier, a public sector bank had been looted and some Rs. 18 crore carried off. The Home Minister claims peace has returned but ground realities are to the contrary. And of course, the Prime Minister carries on with his inexplicable silence on Manipur, along with his refusal to meet with Manipuri leaders or visit the state,” Ramesh wrote on X.
The ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3, killed nearly 200 people and displaced over 60,000 others.