Hundreds of protesters with empty coffins and dressed in black took out a silent rally in Churachandpur on Tuesday in “honour of and protest against” the killing of the 10 Kuki-Zo men who were killed in an encounter with security forces in Manipur’s Jiribam district on November 11.

Kuki-Zo organisations hold CRPF personnel responsible for the death of the 10 “village volunteers” whom the police have accused of being armed militants involved in the November 11 attack on the Borobekra police station and a nearby CRPF post in Jiribam district.

The “mourners” marched for over 2km from the Public Ground to the Wall of Remembrance, a protest site that came up after the ethnic conflict in the state started, with a section carrying banners and placards that read “Justice for Indigenous People” and “Separate Administration Only Solution” to convey their demands to the authorities.

The 10 coffins were also “laid to rest” at the protest site as had been the case with similar protest rallies for “martyrs” of the ongoing conflict between the Kuki-Zos and the Meiteis that erupted on May 3, 2023, leaving 256 people dead and over 60,000 displaced.

“The coffin rally was taken out in honour of our martyrs and to protest their killings. They were village volunteers. We want justice for them,” a mourner told The Telegraph from the Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur town.

Nine of the deceased “village volunteers” were from Churachandpur while one was from Pherzawl district, he said.

The nearly two-hour rally was organised by the Joint Philanthropic Organisation (JPO) and supported by student organisations such as the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), Hmar Students’ Association (HSA) and Zomi Students’ Federation (ZSF). The associations had issued a notice urging schools to send Class X students and above to the rally.

The bodies of the 10 deceased were flown from Silchar in Assam to Churachandpur after the post-mortem on Saturday but their families have not taken possession of the bodies because they arrived “without” the autopsy results.

The bodies are being kept at the district hospital. The funeral will take place only after the families get the post-mortem results and they are reviewed by experts, the Indigenous Tribal Leader’s Forum, a Kuki-Zo civil society organisation, had said.

The police have said that after the attack on the police station and the CRPF post, they discovered that six relief camp inmates from Borobekra were missing and that two locals were killed around the time of the attack by another group of suspected militants.

On Tuesday, the All Manipur United Clubs Organisation, Manipur Students’ Federation and the All Manipur Woman Voluntary Organisation took out protests seeking the withdrawal of Afspa from six police station jurisdictions and the killings of the six “innocent” relief camp inmates in Jiribam. There was a brief standoff with security forces as they tried to stop the march.

There will be another rally in Imphal by 18 organisations from across Imphal Valley on Wednesday against the killing of the six Meitei inmates. The state government has recommended to the Centre “to start mass operations against Kuki militants responsible for the killing of thesix innocent women andchildren in Jiribam within seven days”.

The state on Tuesday conditionally lifted the ban on broadband services but the curbs on mobile data services will continue.

Biren pledge

Chief minister N. Biren Singh posted a video on X on Tuesday night to express his “profound sadness and anger” over the killing of six “innocent” Meitei women and children “by Kuki terrorists after taking them hostage at Jiribam”, while assuring that “the hunt for the terrorists is currently underway and they will be brought to justice soon”.