The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Post-mortem examination reports of 10 Kuki-Zo youths including a minor who were recently killed in an alleged gunfight with the CRPF, suggest that they received multiple fatal bullet injuries and most of them were fired from behind.
An analysis of the autopsy reports indicated that the bullet wounds were the only injuries on their bodies, reported the Press Trust of India.
The Manipur police had claimed on November 11 that 10 suspected militants were killed following a gunfight with security forces. Officials had said that that the gunfight took place after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons opened fire on Borobekra police station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district.
Notably, while six bodies were brought to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam the next day on November 12, four reached the hospital on November 14 and were in early stages of decomposition.
The estimated time of death for the bodies on which autopsy was conducted on November 12 was 24-36 hours before, while those arriving on November 14 were 72-96 hours.
The bodies had multiple bullet wounds, with some of the deceased having even more than a dozen such injuries, while four bodies had one eye missing each.
The opinion regarding the cause of death has been kept pending by doctors who are awaiting chemical analysis reports of viscera.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a key organisation of the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur has said that the deceased youths were village volunteers while the Manipur government has maintained that they were militants.
Ethnic violence began in Manipur in May 2023, and has been going on ever since – killing hundreds, displaces tens of thousands and sharply dividing the state along ethnic lines.