Witnessing her infant child’s lifeless body on a cold steel stretcher in a Chennai mortuary, Lingneifel Vaiphei collapsed in agony, her heart shattered into a million pieces.
Wrapped in a striped woollen shawl, a traditional attire of the Kuki-Zo tribe in Manipur, six-month-old Steven lay motionless, his once rosy cheeks now turned blue.
Tears streaming down her face, the young mother, Lingneifel, tenderly kissed her baby’s cold cheeks as she carried him towards the waiting ambulance, her husband Kennedy Vaiphei by her side. With heavy hearts and tear-stained faces, the family embarked on a journey to lay their precious child to rest in a burial ground, miles away from their new home in Chennai.
Lingneifel burying her infant son at a burial ground in Chennai, Tamil Nadu [Greeshma Kuthar/Al Jazeera]
Less than a day before this heartbreaking moment, on the fateful night of April 25, the couple rushed little Steven to Kilpauk Medical Hospital in Chennai as his fever worsened despite a week-long battle.
Tragically, Steven took his last breath in his mother’s arms before they could even reach the hospital.
A year of deadly violence
Born in Chennai, far away from their strife-torn home in Manipur, Steven’s parents have been caught in the crossfire of ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo tribes for the past year.
The Meiteis, the majority group in Manipur, reside in the valley areas, while the Kuki-Zo and Nagas, other tribal communities, inhabit the hilly regions. The power dynamics in the state heavily favor the Meiteis, leading to ongoing tensions and violence.
For more information, visit www.aljazeera.com to read the full article.