Anger and grief swept through the Imphal Valley on Saturday following official confirmation of the deaths of three of the six Meitei relief camp inmates who went missing during Monday’s gunfight in Jiribam that killed 10 alleged Kuki-Zo militants. The other three too are widely believed to be dead.

Protesters blocked roads and vandalised or tried to storm the residences of several MLAs and ministers — mostly from the BJP — seeking action against the killers, accountability from elected representatives, and a solution to the ethnic conflict that erupted 18 months ago.

The BJP-led state government had in the afternoon confirmed the deaths of three of the relief camp inmates. The deaths come as part of the conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zos that has killed at least 255 people and displaced over 60,000.

The six camp inmates — three women and three minor girls — were from the same family, the oldest aged 60 years and the youngest, eight months.

(News agency PTI reported six deaths. It said the bodies of two women and a child were recovered from River Barak in Jiribam on Saturday, after a woman and two children were found dead on Friday night.)

Afspa plea

Amid the violence, the Manipur government requested the Union home ministry to withdraw the Afspa — which gives the armed forces extraordinary powers to search, arrest and shoot — from six police station areas where it had been reimposed on Thursday. Five of these police stations are in the Meitei-majority valley districts and one in a hill district.

The state recommendation came apparently under public pressure, with citizens and valley organisations protesting the re-imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The Opposition Congress too has criticised the Centre’s move.

Street mayhem

Women and youths hit the streets in the Imphal Valley, mostly in the Imphal East and West districts, on Saturday morning. They blocked roads and burnt tyres.

The crowd targeted the residences of at least seven MLAs and two ministers, mostly from the BJP, in two Imphal districts. Portions of a couple of houses — including that of MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh, son-in-law of chief minister N. Biren Singh — were vandalised. A couple of vehicles used by another MLA were set on fire.

A hoarding featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hatta in Imphal East was torn by protesters, reflecting the public anger against the BJP-led central and state governments for their failure to contain or resolve the conflict.

The state government has shut down the Internet for two days in the five valley districts and two Kuki-Zo-majority hill districts — Churachandpur and Kangpokpi — to prevent the spread of tension and unrest via social media.

It has also ordered schools and colleges closed as a law-and-order measure. Schoolchildren had on Children’s Day, November 14, protested the abduction of the sixrelief camp inmates fromJiribam.

The state cabinet hadmet on Friday night to discuss the situation. It condemned the killing of Hmar and Meitei civilians.

“Cabinet agreed to recommend to the Centre for declaring the organisations responsible for carrying out the inhumane crimes as unlawful organisations, along with their associated support organisations. Cabinet further resolved to take strongest action against the individual perpetrators of these crimes as per law,” a government statement said on Saturday.

Centre warns

The Union home ministry issued a statement on Saturday afternoon about Manipur’s security situation remaining “fragile for the past few days” with armed people from both the communities in conflict “indulging in violence leading to unfortunate loss of lives and disruption in public order”.

The ministry directed the security forces to take “necessary steps to restore order and peace” and warned of “strict action against anyone trying to indulge in violent and disruptive activities”.

It said that important cases had been handed over to the National Investigation Agency. Sources said theseincluded the recent incidents in Jiribam.

“Public are requested to maintain peace, not believe in rumours and cooperate with the security forces to maintain law and order in the state,” the ministry statement said.

An Imphal resident said the situation was tense and volatile over the Jiribam deaths.

Kuki-Zo bodies

The bodies of the 10 slain Kuki-Zo men too had been sent to the SMC for post-mortem and related examinations. They were flown to Manipur’s Churachandpur district by helicopter from Silchar on Saturday afternoon.

There was tension at the Silchar hospital with Kuki-Zo people demanding the Assam police hand the bodies over to them to be driven to Churachandpur via Mizoram so that Kuki-Zo people could pay homage to their “martyrs” along the route. The Mizos share the same Zo ancestry with the Kukis, Hmars and Zomis.

Sources said the request was not entertained because of security concerns, with anger simmering in Kuki-Zo areas over the killing of the10 men.

The hospital witnessed a brief altercation with the Assam Police carrying out a mild baton charge as the Kuki-Zo people pressed for the handover of the bodies. But deft handling by police officers later brought the situation under control. There was heavy police deployment at the medical college.

Trinamool MP Sushmita Dev, who hails from Silchar, expressed her concern on X.

“It’s a tragedy to see so many bodies come into Silchar, Cachar, Assam from #Manipur for postmortem. North East is a sensitive part of the country & the @BJP4India is undoing decades of work that brought peace & harmony in the region. #ManipurViolence,” she wrote.

“These videos reflect the extent of mayhem in Manipur & the spill over into a neighbouring state like Assam.”

The videos showed grief-stricken Kuki-Zo women outside the SMC morgue. One of them said they didn’t trust the Manipur Police.

The Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a Kuki-Zo organisation, said in a statement that the bodies “cannot be claimed” because “no post-mortem paperwork was brought” with the bodies.

The bodies will be kept at the district hospital morgue “until the post-mortem reports are available”, it said.

The post-mortem reports will be reviewed by an expert for “any inconsistencies” once they become available, the ITLF said.

The burial programme will be decided in consultation with the Hmar Inpui, the apex body of the Hmar tribe.