A 2,000-strong Meitei mob allegedly torched an ambulance in front of police on Imphal’s outskirts on Sunday, burning alive a seven-year-old boy, his mother and a relative who were being taken to hospital with bullet injuries.

The deaths were reported earlier in sections of the media but more details started emerging only on Tuesday.

The dead have been identified as Tonsing Hangsing, 7, his mother Meena Hangsing, 45, a Meitei Christian married to a Kuki, and their relative Lydia Lourembam, 37, also a Meitei Christian.

They had earlier been injured in firing by rioters at the Assam Rifles camp where they and many Kukis were staying.

Sunday’s mob attack on Meitei Christians buttresses claims that a longstanding ethnic rivalry — between the majority and mostly Hindu Meiteis and the tribal and overwhelmingly Christian Kukis — has descended into religious-communal strife under the state’s six-year-old BJP government.

All three victims had taken shelter at an Assam Rifles camp in Kangchup, around 15km west of Imphal, since May 3 when clashes broke out between the two communities over the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe status, which the ST Kukis oppose.

“We have been facing a lot of atrocities from the Meitei community since May 3, but Sunday’s incident was the worst,” said Paolenlal Hangsing, a relative of the dead who had seen them off when the ambulance left the Assam Rifles camp for the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Imphal.

“The bodies were charred… only some bones could be found in the ashes,” Paolenlal, a schoolteacher, said.

He said he had not accompanied the trio in the ambulance because he was a Kuki and the vehicle was to pass through Meitei-dominated areas.

“Meena and Lydia are Christians but as they belong to the Meitei community, we thought they would not be attacked. But even they were not spared,” said Paolenlal, who has been staying at a school building, near the Assam Rifles camp in Kangchup, that has been converted into a relief camp for Kukis.

While the government of chief minister and BJP leader N. Biren Singh, whom many Kukis accuse of inflaming Meitei-tribal relations with his policies, claims to be toiling to restore peace, questions have been raised over the police’s role during and after the violence.

“No one from the police has contacted me — I am too scared to go to the police station,” a distraught Joshua Hangsing, who lost his wife and son in the ambulance attack, told The Telegraph over the phone.

Joshua, who is yet to receive the bodies, has since the ambulance attack been living with relatives in Keithelmanbi, a Kuki-dominated village.

This correspondent tried to contact DGP Rajiv Singh, ADG (law and order) L. Kailun, and the security adviser to the chief minister, Kuldeep Singh, for information about Sunday’s incident and the action taken by the government. None of them responded to the calls or text messages.

Sources in the Assam Rifles and the Rapid Action Force (RAF), both central paramilitary forces, provided accounts of Sunday’s atrocity that invite the question whether the police did enough to protect the family when it was attacked near Iroisemba, an area under the Lamphel police station in Imphal West district. It’s a Meitei-dominated area about 5km from Imphal City.

“Several Kuki families have been living in our camp. This leads to occasional firing from outside, targeting areas where the Kukis have been living. On Sunday, three people, including the child, were injured in one such attack,” a senior Assam Rifles officer said.

Following the standard operating procedure, the camp officials got in touch with Ibomcha Singh, the Imphal West SP, and urged him to arrange to take the victims to an Imphal hospital.

A preliminary report sent to the Assam Rifles headquarters indicates that the bullet injuries were reported at 16.03pm, following which the victims were given first aid at the camp, and that the SP was informed at 16.20pm.

(left) Meena Hangsing and her son Tonsing Hangsing, who were burnt alive.

The ambulance left the compound with the patients and a nurse under the SP’s supervision at 17.16pm. None from the Assam Rifles, which has often faced attacks from Meitei rioters, accompanied the ambulance lest there be trouble on the way to Imphal.

“The SP, who was with the ambulance, called one of our seniors at 17.31pm and informed us about an attack on the ambulance by a mob. He said there was a major law-and-order problem,” an Assam Rifles source said.

What happened next was narrated by an RAF source, who said the SP had called a senior RAF officer and sought immediate reinforcements to tackle “a law-and-order situation surrounding an ambulance”.

“Responding to the call, a large contingent left for the area. But it returned to the barracks after the SP called again to say that the situation was under control,” the RAF source said.

Sources in the Assam Rifles and the RAF said they learnt later on Sunday evening that the ambulance had been set on fire in front of the SP and three people had died. The driver and the nurse apparently fled the spot.

“The incident is surprising — we had never before come across any attack on medical facilities or ambulances since being stationed in Imphal to tackle the situation here,” an RAF source said.

Repeated calls and text messages to Ibomcha Singh yielded no response.

Sources in the Manipur government said that senior officials of the police and civil administrations were busy in meetings throughout Tuesday. During the day, the newly appointed chief secretary held a videoconference with senior officials to assess the situation.

Government sources have been claiming that the situation is moving towards normality following the visit by Union home minister Amit Shah — who has appealed to all to surrender arms and maintain peace — and the constitution of a judicial commission to probe the violence. But many ordinary people disagree.

“The situation hasn’t improved; the mistrust and the hate between the communities has only gone up. I don’t know where we are heading,” said L. Otsei Khongsai, principal of the Manger English School, Kangchup, where seven-year-old Tonsing was a Class I student.

While the official death toll from the 34-day-old unrest is 98, unofficial estimates put the figure higher.