Manipur violence: Viral pics show 2 missing students killed, state govt hands case to CBI

Pictures of the bodies of two Manipuri students, who had been missing since July, have gone viral on social media platforms. These images depict moments from before and after they were killed.

One of the photographs portrays the two students with two armed men in the frame and the other one was of two bodies. The students have been identified as 17-year-old Hijam Linthoingambi and 20-year-old Phijam Hemjit.

The recent images went viral days after two Kuki women in Manipur were stripped and paraded by a mob on 4 May. The video of the incident surfaced on 19 July.

The police had previously said that the whereabouts of the two missing students were not known and their mobile phones were found switched off.

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The last location of their handsets was traced at Lamdan near the winter flower tourist spot in the Churachandpur district, they had said earlier.

After the images went viral, the Manipur government asked the people to exercise restraint and allow the authorities to investigate the "kidnapping and killing" of two students.

In a statement issued by the secretariat of Chief Minister N Biren Singh late on Monday night, the state government said the case has already been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"The state police, in collaboration with the central security agencies, are actively investigating the case to determine the circumstances surrounding their disappearance and to identify the perpetrators who murdered the two students. The security forces have also started the search operation to nab the perpetrators," the statement said.

Security personnel have been put on alert, and additional measures taken to prevent any incident following the viral of photos of the students, a senior officer said, according to PTI.

"The government is committed to ensuring justice and will impose severe punishment on any perpetrator found responsible for the heinous crime," it said.

With inputs from agencies