After lying in the morgue for 632 days, the last remains of eight of the nine men who died in police firing in Churachandpur, were laid to rest this week. Their final abode is a common grave next to the Khuga dam on the outskirts of the Manipuri town.
The decision to bury the eight was reached after the Joint Action Committee Against Anti Tribal Bills, which was formed to protest the passage of three contentious Bills, signed a memorandum of understanding with the State government on May 10. No funeral was held for the eight “martyrs” (the ninth person who died in the same agitation was buried earlier) as the locals protested that the Bills infringed on tribal land rights.
The families of the dead, who remained steadfast with the public movement, had their final moments of grief on Wednesday (May 24). People from across the town assembled outside the district hospital morgue. The coffins were first driven to the Lamka Public Ground — where many more were waiting to pay their last respects — and then to the burial ground.
Volunteers took turns to dig the common grave. As is the local custom, the tools changed hands frequently as more and more people, arriving in pick-up trucks and buses, pitched in. At the morgue, hundreds of mourners helped load the coffins on trucks. And as local pastors conducted the final ceremony, many more queued up to place wreaths on the grave.
Vivek Singh is a documentary photographer and journalist based in Delhi