A seven-second video has emerged from Manipur showing a man’s body in flames as he lies motionless on the ground with a bloodied face, with police and government sources identifying him as a Kuki.

It’s not clear whether the man was already dead when set on fire. There’s excited chatter going on among unseen people in the video, with a Kuki-Zo organisation saying this background conversation is in “the Meitei language”.

The video, which has prompted angry reactions from Kuki-Zo organisations, comes after another video, circulated on July 19, showed two Kuki-Zo women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted.

The latest video began circulating on WhatsApp groups on Sunday evening. It shows the motionless man, in a black T-shirt and camouflage pants, lying face downwards with his torso in flames. The word “Kuki” is emblazoned in capital letters on the screen.

The security adviser to the Manipur government, Kuldiep Singh, told reporters on Monday evening that the victim was 37-year-old Laldingthanga Khongsai aka Laljames of Haokhongching village in Kuki-Zo majority Kangpokpi district. He did not say where the incident happened. Khongsai is a Kuki surname.

Singh said “the DGP has already requested CBI to take over the case” because the incident was a “sequel” to the two women being paraded naked (in Thoubal district), and happened the same day, May 4. He did not elaborate.

The victim’s body is in the morgue at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal East.

An official told The Telegraph that the police had registered a suo motu case at the Nongpok Sekmai police station in Thoubal district when asked where the incident had taken place.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a conglomerate of recognised Kuki-Zo tribes from Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur district, condemned the “shocking and barbaric incident” on Monday.

It said the video had surfaced “on the Internet” on Sunday evening and the “voices in the background converse in the Meitei language”. Gunshots can also be heard in the video, it said.

The ITLF added that the video “is a harrowing testament to the ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kuki-Zo community by the majority Meiteis”.

It accused the administration of bias and “selective application of justice” saying it “reinforces our demand for a separate administration”.

“ITLF reiterates its call for a Separate Administration, as it is increasingly apparent that coexistence with the Meiteis, who have driven us out of their valley, subjected us to violence, and attacked our villages, is an untenable proposition,” the statement said.

It added: “The free transfer of more than 6,000 sophisticated weapons and over 5 lakh rounds of ammunition into the hands of Arambai Tenggol and Meetei Leepun further fuelled the aggression against the Kuki-Zo community.”

The Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun are two Imphal valley-based groups that have been accused by the Kuki-Zo people of being involved in the Meitei-Kuki violence that has since May 3 killed at least 176 people and displaced over 67,000.

Both organisations claim to be socio-cultural bodies working to secure the future of Manipur. The Arambai Tenggol is mostly made up of youths.

Meitei organisations and the state government have blamed the violence on influx from bordering Myanmar and Kuki-Chin narco-terrorists.

The ITLF statement listed a few of the “inhumane killings” of Kuki-Zo people that have “already garnered attention”, including the “delivery of Florence and Olivia into the hands of Meitei youths by the Meira Paibis, the parading of our two sisters naked, the burning of Tonsing, his mother Meena Hangshing, and his aunt Lydia inside an ambulance... the beheading of David Thiek...”

The Manipur government’s “failure to address these heinous crimes underscores its bias and exclusionary approach, which only serves the interests of the Meiteis”, the ITLF alleged.

The state’s BJP-led government has banned mobile Internet services since May 3 — with a break of just three days from September 26 — to check the spread of rumours and hate. But horrific images keep surfacing now and then.