A Meitei mother, her 8-year-old son, and their relative were burnt to death on Sunday after the ambulance they were travelling in was set ablaze by a mob in Imphal West’s Iroisemba area.
Meena Hangsing and her relative, Lydia Lourembam, were taking the child, Tomshing, who sustained a bullet wound in his head during a shoot-out, to the hospital, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal by road, and was being escorted by police personnel, according to a report by NDTV.
The incident happened around 7 pm under the jurisdiction of Lamphel police station.
The Meitei mother and her Kuki man were residing in an Assam Rifles relief camp at Kangchup along with their son when the incident occurred. On the same evening, gunfire started around the camp where the child sustained a bullet injury.
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A senior Assam Rifles officer confirmed the incident. “All we could recover were some bones from inside the vehicle,” he said, reports Indian Express.
An FIR with charges of murder was registered against the mob on the same night at the police station.
The family were residents of Kangchup Chingkhok village in the Kangpokpi district which has several Kuki villages and is on Kangpokpi district’s border with Imphal West, close to the Meitei village of Phayeng. The area has been embroiled in heavy exchange of fire since May 27.
According to a relative of the family, the mother-son duo along with their relative drew confidence from the fact that they were Meiteis and nothing would happen to them. However, the incident comes a month after ethnic clashes broke out between the Kuki and Meitei communities in Manipur on May 3.
