New Delhi/Imphal, Aug 1 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made a second consecutive arrest in the 2024 killings in Manipur’s Jiribam, central probe agency sources said on Friday.

The NIA in a statement said that the national probe agency caught Lalrosang Hmar alias Rosang, a resident of Moinathol Village in southern Assam’s Cachar district, from the Mizoram capital Aizawl on Thursday.

The arrest came after the arrest of another key accused, Thanglienlal Hmar, by a joint NIA-Assam police team on Thursday, also from Aizawl.

Three women and three children were abducted and brutally murdered by militants in the Borebekra area of Manipur’s Jiribam district on November 11 last year.

The bodies were disposed of in the Barak River. Like Thanglienlal, Lalrosang was also an active conspirator in the heinous crime.

The NIA sleuths have recovered a mobile phone, along with a SIM card from Lalrosang. The NIA took over the case from Manipur’s Borebekra police and is now continuing the investigation of the case.

The victims’ bullet-riddled bodies were recovered on different dates from the Barak River along the Manipur-Assam border in November last year.

The six victims, including a 10-month-old infant, belonged to the non-tribal Meitei community.

Two other civilians, also belonging to the Meitei community, were killed, and several houses were burned during the attack.

The November 11, 2024, incident triggered widespread violence in various districts of Manipur, including Jiribam, which shares an inter-state border with southern Assam.

The Manipur High Court also earlier this month directed the NIA to submit a “detailed progress report” on the Jiribam killings.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kempaiah Somashekar and Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh issued the directive after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Soram Tekendrajit.

–IANS

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