Two Meiteis hacked in fresh Manipur horror

A pair of lovers in Manipur, both Meiteis, eloped but ended up in an area controlled by the Kukis and, according to photographs that emerged late on Monday, after the state reinstated mobile internet, seem to have been murdered, the latest victims in a five-month long civil war-like situation that has roiled the northeastern state.

- Prawesh Lama and Utpal Parashar

The last cellphone location of the two Meitei students was traced in Lamdan of Churachandpur district, police officers in Manipur aware of the matter said.

While the murder investigation has been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Manipur police said their initial probe revealed that the missing 20-year-old man and 17-year-old girl may have eloped on July 6, but got trapped in an area dominated by the Kuki community while fleeing, after which they were allegedly abducted and murdered.

HT has seen a copy of the complaint filed by the girl's father, in which he alleged his daughter had been abducted by Phijam Hemanjit Singh (20).

The police probe also revealed that a day after the two went missing, a new SIM card was inserted in the man's mobile phone that was activated in Lamdan, a Kuki-dominated area, on July 7, a police officer said, asking not to be named. A CBI team led by special director Ajay Bhatnagar will visit Imphal on Wednesday to probe the case, people aware of the matter said.

On September 25, two days after the state government restored internet services, photos of the couple surfaced on social media. One showed them sitting on the ground in what appears to be a forest with two armed men in the background, and another showed them apparently lying dead on the ground. The man's head appeared to be missing in the photograph and the woman's face is not visible. The two are wearing the same clothes as seen in the first photograph. Their faces are not visible in the second photograph. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs.