MANIPUR: While the bodies of two missing students have yet to be found in violence-torn Manipur, two more teenagers who were supposed to attend a ceremony at Koubru temple in Sekmai went missing after crossing the Kanglatombi bridge in Imphal West. Tensions in the conflict-torn state flared up again.
The two missing individuals have been identified as Avinash Maibam, known as Khaba, a 16-year-old son of M Hemanta, and Ningthoujam Anthony, known as Temba, a 19-year-old son of the late N Sunder. They are both from Akham Awang Leikai, under the jurisdiction of Lamshang Police Station.
They set out on their Jawa motorcycle with registration number MN01AN-3387 to attend the ceremony on Sunday morning. According to their family members, they stopped answering calls from their families around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. By 8 p.m., since both remained unreachable, they reported the situation to the Lamshang police station.
The cyber-crime department tracked their location and discovered their last mobile phone’s signal was in the Senapati district.
A team led by SDPO Senapati, Stanley Keishing, recovered their mobile phones from an oil pump in Rikhumai Taphou, located in the Senapati district, around 12:05 a.m. The phones were found in a black polythene bag after the police noticed a faint light signal while trying to call the missing teenagers. One of the mobile phones was switched off, and the other was on silent mode. The phones were found approximately 2-3 kilometers from Taphou Kuki.
Efforts to locate the missing youths involved a combined force of Kangpokpi District Police, 22-AR, and CRPF, who conducted search operations at Khengjang, Langnom, and Gampiphai from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, but they were unable to locate the missing individuals.
The situation led to an agitated mob from Akham and other areas gathering at Sekmai and the Kanglatombi bridge. The mob also blocked roads from Lamshang Bazar to Phumlou.
Senior officials, including Manipur Police IG Zone-1 Themthing Ngashangva, SP Imphal West, and Additional SP, rushed to Sekmai Police Station to assess the incident.
Lamshang MLA S Rajen also visited to inspect the situation up to the Kanglatombi bridge. The MLA, along with the womenfolk of Akham, submitted a memorandum to the governor and chief minister.
It’s important to note that the bodies of the previously missing students, Phijam Hemanjit and Hijam Lingthoingambi, have yet to be found after they were presumed to have been killed by Kuki militants. Both students had gone missing since July 6.
