Imphal: The United Peoples of Manipur (UPM) has demanded the immediate formation of specialised search teams to locate people missing in the ongoing conflict. The organisation said financial assistance cannot replace the need for closure.
The demand follows a state cabinet decision to allocate Rs 4.90 crore in special humanitarian assistance to the families of 49 missing individuals.
According to a UPM statement, civil society organisations have verified that at least 31 to 32 Meitei individuals, including minors, remain missing.
The organisation said the remains of one teenager were recovered in January 2024, while several high school students and other people remain unaccounted for. It also said the government’s failure to recover bodies from known conflict corridors had severely weakened public trust in the rule of law.
The UPM urged the Manipur government and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to deploy joint search teams to address the situation. The proposed teams would include personnel from the CRPF and Assam Rifles, a State Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), and forensic experts.
The organisation called for these teams to be given unrestricted authority to search suspected burial sites across ethnic divisions in peripheral hill and foothill areas.
The state government’s financial package was finalised at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh. It provides Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the 49 officially recorded missing persons.
Government spokespersons Sapam Ranjan Singh and Thokchom Radheshyam said that missing persons are legally presumed dead only after seven years.
They explained that the special state-funded grant was intended to provide assistance to distressed families without waiting for the standard compensation process.
At the same meeting, the cabinet also standardised compensation for Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel killed or injured in extremist violence, bringing it in line with the rates applicable to state police personnel.