Nengboi Doungel and her daughter at a relief camp in Assam
Guwahati/New Delhi:
Nengboi Doungel, a woman from the Kuki tribes and resident of Pangmol village in Manipur’s Tamenglong district, gave birth to a baby girl in Assam’s Hmarkhawlien relief camp. On the same day, her husband’s mutilated body arrived in Manipur’s Churachandpur district.
While relief camp inmates claimed the man was killed on the same day the baby was born, local reports have said he was killed earlier and his body dumped in Manipur’s Jiribam. The Assam Police in a social media post denied Kuki groups’ allegations that he was kidnapped by suspected Meitei militants from Assam’s Cachar district.
Ms Doungel doesn’t know what to do now, after she lost her husband in the Manipur conflict. Her family members are in such a situation of despair that they could not welcome the new birth.
When the situation became tense and the conflict yet again started in some parts of Manipur, Ms Doungel’s husband Haojoel Doungel had fled with his family to the relief camp, seeking refuge.
Despite their displacement, her husband’s dedication to their family never wavered, she said. When her delivery date neared, he went to Jirighat in search of financial aid to ensure a safe delivery.
Tragically, this act of love and responsibility became his last.
Sources have said Haojoel Doungel was allegedly kidnapped by suspected Meitei militants. His body was found in a culvert near Anglapur village in Jiribam.
Unaware of the tragedy that had unfolded, Ms Doungel went into labour in the relief camp and gave birth to their little daughter. The arrival of the child brought a fleeting moment of joy amid profound grief as at the same day her husband’s body was brought to Churachandpur.
Civil society groups of the Kuki tribes said Haojoel Doungel risked everything for the wellbeing of his wife and the newborn, but lost his life in the conflict, leaving his family shattered. This tragedy is not an isolated incident, but emblematic of the broader devastation wrought by the ongoing conflict.
In the past two weeks, a woman from the Hmar tribe was killed by suspected Meitei militants, and eight from the Meitei community were murdered by suspected Kuki militants. Six of the eight were from the same family, including an infant and two children; they were taken hostage, killed in captivity and the bodies dumped into a river by the suspected Kuki militants.
