The killings of 11 members of the Hmar-Mizo community in the Jiribam district of Manipur drew hundreds of people to Aizawl on Friday night for a candlelight vigil. In response to the violence that killed multiple people, the Mizo Defence League held a protest in front of Vanapa Hall to show their sorrow and an indignation. The killing of a Hmar tribal lady, a mother of three, who was killed on November 7 in Zairawn village, close to Jiribam town, sparked a lot of protests.
The protesters also denounced the alleged November 11 murders of ten other members of the Hmar-Mizo village at Jakuradhor, also in Jiribam, by security personnel. Participants in the vigil yelled chants accusing the central government and the state administration of Manipur of being responsible for the ongoing ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei populations. The demonstrators voiced their dissatisfaction with the government’s inability to stop the violence, which has wreaked havoc on the lives of several innocent people. The protesters also called for the return of the ten deceased people’s bodies, which are presently being kept at the morgue of Silchar Medical College and Hospital in Assam, to their families so that they might be buried according to their own customs.