Imphal, Nov 17 (IANS): The last rites of 10 slain ‘Village Volunteers’, who were killed in an encounter with CRPF in Manipur’s Jiribam district on November 11, will not be conducted until their post-mortem reports were handed over to the families, a leading organisation representing the community said on Sunday.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), an apex body of the Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal community in Manipur, held emergency meetings on Saturday and Sunday and decided that the bodies of the ‘martyrs’ would not be claimed till the post-mortem reports were given to the organisation or the family members.

“We have not yet received the post-mortem reports. We would wait for autopsy reports of all the ‘martyrs’ bodies. We would not bury the ‘martyrs’ before that,” senior ITLF leader Ginza Vualzong told the media after Sunday’s meeting.

He said: “Our martyrs’ bodies would be placed in the district hospital morgue until post-mortem reports are available.”

Vualzong said that after receiving the post-mortem reports of all 10 ‘martyrs’, an expert in this field would carefully review the autopsy reports for any irregularity.

The ITLF legal cell would pursue all legal options in this regard, he said, adding that a Joint Philanthropic Organisation (JPO) would collaborate with the Hmar Inpui to plan the burial programme for 10 ‘martyrs’.

The bodies of all 10 alleged ‘militants’ were brought back to Churachandpur district by helicopter on Saturday from Assam’s Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) after conducting a post-mortem.

All tribal organisations in Manipur including the ITLF, Kuki-Zo Council and Hmar Students’ Association have been claiming that all 10 ‘Hmar Village Volunteers’ were engaged to protect the villagers.

A tribal leader said that the “martyrs’ bodies” were brought by helicopter by the government despite the ITLF’s insistence to bring the bodies by road.