On the night, 29-year-old man was killed by unknown shooters in the Churachandpur District of Manipur. Security officials state that the attackers filmed the killing on video and spread it on social media.
The victim is Mayanglambam Rishikant Singh of the Meitei people and a Kakching district resident. He was visiting his wife who is of the Kuki-Zo people in Churachandpur. Singh had worked in Nepal last two years and came back to India in December. He arrived at Churachandpur on December 19 after travelling through Aizawl in the neighbouring Mizoram and had been staying there since then.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening when unidentified men entered the house of the couple as stated by the officials. The culprits carried both Singh and his wife away. The wife was set free at a short distance, but Singh was taken further and was shot dead. A video that was circulated later by the attackers depicts a terrified Singh on his knees pleading with his life before being killed.
The police were not immediately called when the incident occurred, according to security forces. The Assam Rifles had been reported to have heard of the killing through intelligence sources. The video of the murder was distributed on WhatsApp at an IP address that was tracked in Guwahati, around 9.30 p.m. The name of the video was no peace no popular governments.
The wife of Singh reported the incident to the police saying that four men in a black SUV came to ask her husband. They were all masked. Two of them remained in the car, as the other two went into the house. One of them was carrying a weapon. She reported that she has not yet succeeded in pinpointing any of the perpetrators.
She also informed the police that no other person except the village chief knew that her husband had arrived in Churachandpur. This has questioned the way the attackers acquired the information.
The investigation also included the body of the victim that was recovered and subjected to post-mortem examination.
Since May 3, 2023, mostly between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, ethnic violence has been witnessed in Manipar.
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More than 250 people have lost their lives due to the violence. The members of the two communities, more than two years later, have not been able to move freely into their areas. There are still buffer zones between the Imphal Valley districts, dominated mainly by Meitei, and the hill districts, inhabited by Kuki-Zo. Churachandpur is south of the Imphal Valley, and it is a hill district.
Since February 13, 2025 the state has been under President Rule.
In the meantime, Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM) castigated the kidnapping and murder of Singh. The organisation claimed that the crime was committed by gun-wielding Kuki militants of Tuibong. This ethnically distinct community, the Thadou, has long protested against being combined into the larger Kuki.
