1-month-old who died alone at hospital among the buried

At the site of a mass burial site in Churachandpur's Sehken, among the many victims of the Manipur clashes, a headstone says Baby Isaac, 1 month. The infant from the Hmar tribe is the youngest victim of ethnic clashes in the northeastern state. At least 187 have died and around 50,000 displaced in the violence that started on May 3.

- Prawesh Lama

Isaac was not killed by militants or burnt to death. He was not lynched by a mob. When violence broke out, he was admitted and due for surgery on May 6 at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in state capital Imphal.

A day before his scheduled surgery related to a urological ailment, as violence spiralled out of control in Imphal, İsaac, his parents and all other tribals were evacuated from the hospital by security forces and taken to a relief camp. But with forces unable to hold families like Isaac's for long at the relief camp, the people were shifted from Imphal to the hill districts for safety. Isaac died alone at a private hospital in Imphal on May 10 when he was admitted after developing medical complications at the relief camp.

With the family unable to traverse the 250km journey to Imphal because Manipur's districts were divided on ethnic lines, the child's body was kept with other tribal victims at a mortuary in RIMS all these months. Last week, security forces airlifted the bodies, bypassing the Meitei-dominated areas of Imphal and Bishnupur and brought them to Churachandpur for a mass burial.