"Broken Bones And Skull… ": Autopsy Of Woman Killed In Manipur Violence

Screen grab of a purported video showing the attack on a Jiribam village on Thursday

New Delhi/Imphal:

The autopsy report of a woman who was killed in a night attack by suspected insurgents in Manipur’s restive Jiribam district mentions eight wounds that include broken bones and “burnt and separated” skull. Her body was burnt 99 per cent.

The 31-year-old woman’s husband in a police case alleged she was raped before their house was set on fire by suspected “Meitei militants” in the district bordering Assam. She was a school teacher and mother of three children.

The autopsy report said samples to check for sex assault could not be taken as “the body parts were completely charred and not recognisable.” The family has buried the body after performing the last rites.

“… The right upper limb and parts of both lower limbs and the facial structure [were] found missing,” the report said.

“A penetrating wound of size 1 cm x 0.75 cm [is] seen over the back of the right thigh… coming out through an opening measuring 2 cm x 1 cm in the right upper thigh…” the post mortem report said.

It said a 5-cm-long metallic nail was found embedded on the left thigh.

“Burnt and separated fragments of bone did not show any signs of vital reaction indicating the post mortem nature of separation,” the autopsy report said.

The autopsy was done at Silchar Medical College and Hospital in neighbouring Assam, two days after the woman was killed.

“Death was due to shock as a result of third-degree mixed flame antemortem burns as described which covered 99 per cent of total body surface area. Time since death was 24 to 36 hours,” the autopsy report concluded.

The woman’s husband in the first information report (FIR) filed with the police in Jiribam, 120 km from the state capital Imphal, had alleged she was shot in the leg when the attack in their village, Zairawn, began on Thursday night. Their house collapsed after the fire completely destroyed the structure, he said.

The attackers also set fire to several other houses in the village, where people from the Hmar tribe live, civil society groups have said. Visuals of the night attack have surfaced on social media.

Thursday’s attack sparked the latest round of violence in the multi-ethnic district, where a key national highway connecting Manipur with Assam passes through.

On Monday, 10 suspected Kuki insurgents were shot dead in an encounter by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jiribam. Civil society groups of the Kuki tribes have alleged the 10 men were “village volunteers”, and have demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.

The police have denied the allegations. The police released photos stating they recovered a military grade rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, and INSAS and AK assault rifles, which “village volunteers” cannot use.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis – a term given by the British in colonial times – who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.