Women militants are accused of participating in a premeditated attack on a Meitei settlement in Jirbam district on November 11. Survivors share harrowing details of the ordeal, shedding light on the dark depths of the ongoing ethnic conflict.
By PC Bureau
New Delhi
Women Kuki militants were part of the harrowing attack on Meites households on November 11 in Manipur’s Jiribam district. The attackers burned homes, abducted six members of a Meitei family—including infants—and inflicted unspeakable brutality before leaving their bodies in the Barak River.
Two minor siblings, who managed to escape the attack, recounted the horrors they witnessed to TV channel. The 12-year-old survivor said, “I was hiding in a field. I couldn’t get up as I was scared of getting shot. They came in two packed vehicles, some walking. They were diesel autorickshaws, the big ones. They surrounded us from all four sides. I didn’t see how many women were there, but I saw their faces.”
The boy’s mother, Telem Thoibi Devi, 31, and his eight-year-old sister were among those killed, along with his grandmother, mother’s sister, her infant baby, and three-year-old son. The autopsy of Thoibi Devi revealed horrifying injuries: “Both eyes were dislodged from the sockets; her scalp was lacerated at many places, the skull bone was broken and pushed in, and her head was crushed.”
The boy’s elder sibling, aged 14, provided further details: “They were armed. They jumped out and started shooting at the house. Two of them came and kicked the door. They told us to get out, which we did. A total of four were outside. One of them held my arm and hit my face with the butt of the gun. I managed to run. They fired a few rounds. They (family) were taken away at gunpoint.”
Survivors also told described how their abducted relatives were brutally murdered. The infant nephew of Thoibi Devi was “shot in the knee, stabbed in the chest, and hit with a blunt object on the jaw,” according to the postmortem report. His body showed signs of advanced decomposition, and both eyeballs were missing.
Laishram Herojit, who lost his wife, infant son, and three-year-old child, recounted a desperate phone call from his wife during the attack. “She was crying on the phone. She said they were surrounded by a lot of armed people. The call got disconnected, and when I called back, her phone was switched off.” Herojit later learned from a friend that his family had been taken away in a boat.
The 12-year-old boy described seeing a “Casper” vehicle, often used as a term for any large armored SUV in the area, damaged in a gunfight. “It was a CRPF Casper, the small, white one, which looks like a Scorpio. It was damaged in the gunfight. We heard the gunshots,” he told the TV channel.
The attack, described by officials as a premeditated operation, occurred despite the proximity of the Borobekra police station and a CRPF camp to the scene. The attackers reportedly divided into two groups—one taking the abducted family toward the Barak River while the other engaged security personnel.
Political leaders across party lines have condemned the violence, with many labeling it a terror attack rather than a community clash. This latest incident is part of a broader ethnic conflict in Manipur, where clashes between the Meitei community and Kuki tribes have led to over 220 deaths and the displacement of nearly 50,000 people.
Civil society groups from both communities have accused the other of atrocities, deepening the cycle of violence. The involvement of women militants in such brutality has added a chilling dimension to the conflict, leaving survivors and families grappling with unimaginable loss.
