An off-duty Indian Army soldier was kidnapped by militants from his home in Manipur on Saturday morning and his body was found the following morning with a gunshot wound to his head.
Serto Thangthang Kom (41), an Indian Army soldier, was found shot dead by unidentified assailants about 14 kilometres away from his home.
Kom, who was with the Defence Service Corps (DSC), was attached with 302 Company, Army Service Corps (ASC), in Leimakhong, Manipur. He was reportedly abducted from his family’s home in Tarung, in Imphal West’s Happy Valley, at about 10 am on Saturday, Indian Express reported.
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The soldier was from Manipur’s Kom tribe, which is separate from both the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities which are currently in conflict with each other in the state.
Kom’s 10-year-old son was reportedly the only eyewitness to the abduction, and he told police that three miscreants had entered their home while they were working on the porch. According to the boy’s statement, his father was forced into a white-coloured vehicle at gunpoint, and driven away, Indian Express reported.
According to an Army spokesperson, the body was identified by Kom’s brother and brother-in-law, who said he had been killed by a single bullet in the head. The post-mortem report is awaited.
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“The brave soldier who breathed his last at the hands of miscreants is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son. The last rites shall be conducted as per the wishes of the family. Army has rushed a team to assist the bereaved family in all manners possible. Army strongly condemns the killing of Sep Serto Thangthang Kom and stands by his family in these difficult times,” stated the spokesperson.
Kom’s murder is the second in a week of a service police or security force officer killed amid the ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities.
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Last month, former Rajya Sabha MP and boxing champion MC Mary Kom – who is also from the community – had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking his intervention to prevent the conflict in Manipur from affecting the Kom tribe.