In Manipur's Churachandpur, tribal 'Martyrs' will likely sway elections

Over 600 days have passed and the bodies continue to lie in the morgue

It was not yet 9 am and group of schoolboys were already out, playing football under the strong sun. Pairs of young legs animatedly chased the ball through a cluster of tombstones. Their ground was the colony’s graveyard.

Not far from the boys ­– at one end of the graveyard in the Bijang area of Manipur’s Churachandpur town – was the buried body of Khaizamang Touthang, under a mound of mud circled by a bamboo fence that was decorated with wreaths made of plastic flowers.

Eleven-year-old Khaizamang could well have been among those kicking around the football that morning in