GUWAHATI: A video showing a man’s body on fire in India’s restive Manipur prompted calls for justice from a minority tribal group in the northeastern state, which remains on edge more than five months after bloody ethnic clashes killed at least 180 people.

The seven-second video, which surfaced on social media on Sunday, has been verified by state police. It showed a man with injuries to the head lying near barbed wire while a portion of the body was ablaze. Voices and gunshots could be heard in the background. It is unclear whether he was alive or already dead.

Sporadic violence has continued after the peak of the ethnic clashes in May despite tens of thousands of extra security personnel being deployed, marking a rare security failure for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in a state ruled by his Bharatiya Janata Party.

Authorities identified the victim as Laldinthanga Khongsai, 37, and an umbrella body of Manipur’s tribal groups said he belonged to the Kuki community.

State authorities said they had ordered an investigation by the federal police into the incident suspected to have taken place on May 4. The violence erupted on May 3 as members of the majority Meitei ethnic group and minority Kuki tribals clashed over sharing government benefits and quotas in jobs and education.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2023