On May 2, a day before Manipur went up in flames, T. Khupminthang, took shelter in the house of his employer, a Meitei, along with his son and three others.
The five Kuki tribals were residents of Churachandpur district, but worked in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state.
Two of them did not survive the violence that lasted until May 6. A Meitei mob killed them.
On May 3, Khupminthang and others decided to seek shelter at an Army Camp. As they were ready to leave, hundreds of Meitei people descended on the house with sticks and iron rods. The five fled upstairs but were overpowered.
The mob then took them to a room and asked for their identification cards. Some in the mob shouted they were looking for the “Kukis.” On realizing one of their captives was a member of the Zou community, the mob said they pardoned him. Someone in the mob said Zous are part of the Kukis, the attackers’ mood changed.
The mob took three of them away while T Khupminthang and another person were hidden by their employer for an hour. T. Khupminthang later said he heard the cries of one of the captives. T. Khuplunthang and the other person went to the Singzamei army camp.
The mob that took the three tortured them and left them for dead on an Imphal street. Their attackers had taken the videos of the attack and posted them online. The police presumed the three dead and took their bodies to the morgue of a hospital in Imphal.
While two of them had died already, Khuplunthang’s son regained conscious and requested a nurse for her phone to call his mother in Churachandpur. He begged her to rescue him.