Explained: Who Is Lydia Lourembam?

(Had the pregnant mother’s corpse been stolen by the Kukis?)

Ever since they heard the news about the befitting and reverential mass burial of the noble and heroic Kukis whose bodies had been airlifted from the valley of death after a long 8 months of lying helplessly in the mortuaries in Imphal and were buried on 15th December 2023 at Martyrs’ Park in Phaijang Village, Kangpokpi, the Meiteis have been pushing panic button on one “Lydia Lourembam.”

Why? Among the nineteen untainted heroes was a lady named Lydia Lourembam, a Meitei woman who was burnt alive inside an ambulance by Meitei mobs on June 4.

Lydia Lourembam w/o Inaoton Lourembam lived in a loving Christian family. She lived with her husband; her mother-in-law Lourembam Sanatombi; brother-in-law Abung; her six-year old son Lanchenba and a two-year old daughter Lembisana.

In the year 2017, considering their faith, the family had decided to live in a Kuki village, requesting the Village Authority of Kangchup Twikun by requesting the village chief in the Kuki traditional and customary manner to allow them to settle in the village and count them as one among the full-fledged village members.

Since the outbreak of the ongoing ethnic violence from May 3, the Lourembam family had been taking shelter in the Assam Rifles Camp in Kangchup Twikun. The family members except the deceased’s husband is still in the camp.

On the fateful day of June 4, Lydia Lourembam, a seven-month pregnant mother, was burnt alive in an ambulance while accompanying Meena (a Meitei woman married to a Kuki) and her seven-year old son Tonsing Hangsing who had suffered a bullet injury from a head shot by the Meitei militants. Since then, Lydia’s mortal remains had been lying in RIMS morge in Imphal until she met a decent burial amongst her beloved Kuki brothers and sisters.

Her husband Lourembam Inaoton, with the consent of the deceased family had thereafter submitted a request at the Kangpokpi Police Station that his wife’s lifeless body be brought to Kuki-Zo area and be laid to rest in Kangpokpi. And thus she was there among the heroes welcomed back home.

Inaoton with great discontentment said that he could not even think of considering the valley people as his kinsmen for their brutality and inhumane nature, killing his wife, with whom they shared the same blood, without the slightest mercy. He expressed his gratitude to all the Kuki leaders for the love and care shown to his wife and his family and said that he was now in peace seeing his wife Lydia has been laid to rest in peace with the highest dignity one can deserve.

Lourembam Inaoton, a throat cancer patient, presently resides in Kangpokpi with Joshua Hangsing f/o Tonsing, due to his continuing treatment. He also mentioned his gratitude to the COTU Medical Team for assisting him and making it possible for him to get treatment in Guwahati soon.

On the other hand, some Meiteis have claimed that a Meitei dead body was by requesting the village chief in the traditional and customary manner by the Kukis. The allegation is false and baseless. The Kukis preserve humanity and dignity even in times of death and war. Lydia was a Meitei lady. However, she has been accepted and embraced by the Kukis for the horror she had endured during her heroic fight against her blood-brothers’ inhumane atrocities. Her heroic sacrifice will be remembered in the history of the Kukis.