Oinam Binita, whose BSF husband serves at the border, lost her two children — aged five and five months — in a bomb attack by Kuki armed miscreants at Tronglaobi on April 7. Hospitalised, she vows to fight for justice.
IMPHAL — Oinam Binita had every reason to feel safe. Her husband, a Head Constable in the Border Security Force, was away at the border defending the nation. Yet she believed that their home in Tronglaobi Awang Leikai — guarded by many like him — was the one place where she and her two young children could sleep without fear. That belief was shattered in the dead of night.
After midnight on April 7, Kuki armed miscreants launched a bomb attack on the family's residence. In the violence that followed, Binita's two children — Oinam Tomthil, aged five, and the infant Oinam Laisana, only five months old — were killed as they lay sleeping peacefully on their mother's lap. Binita herself suffered severe injuries and is currently receiving treatment at Raj Medicity in Imphal.
Speaking to reporters from her hospital bed, a grief-stricken Binita recounted the last words her eldest child spoke to her before the attack. "That night, my child went to sleep after saying 'I love you, Mama,' and since then, I haven't heard my child call me 'Mama' again; even when I called, there was no answer," she said, weeping inconsolably.
Her anguish was compounded by a sense of profound betrayal — not just by the assailants, but by the system she had trusted to keep her family safe. "Even though my husband is away in the defense forces protecting the country, I thought there were many like him here to guard and protect us," she said. "Believing they were protecting us, we slept without any fear. But there was no one to protect us. Had I known no one would protect us, I would have guarded my two children myself. If I had been on guard that night, my children's lives would not have been lost."
Binita also expressed outrage that the attackers were able to strike despite the presence of deployed security forces in the area. "They attacked our home by sneaking in, despite the presence of security forces who are supposed to be protecting us," she said. "The security forces haven't been able to catch a single one of them. No action has been taken so far for the loss of my two little children's lives."
Her words put a devastating personal face on a question that has haunted the conflict-ravaged region: how safe are ordinary people within their own homes? "Those innocent children were just sleeping, holding onto me. They snatched my two children from my lap and killed them without mercy. If we are not safe even inside our homes, and if children can lose their lives while in their mother's lap, what kind of land is this?"
Recalling the moments after the blast, Binita described calling out to her infant daughter, who had been tucked against her chest. "When I called out 'Bemma, Bemma,' there was no response. After a while, she cried out loudly. After that, I thought my child must be tired as she didn't respond again," she said through tears. She described both her children as having sacrificed their lives for the motherland.
Despite her grief, Binita's resolve was unwavering. "Until the government punishes those who killed my children, this mother's resolve will not waver," she declared. She added that she would not back down until those responsible are brought to justice. Expressing a wish that no other mother in Manipur should ever endure the same pain, she appealed for accountability — and for an end to the fear that forces families to flee their own homes.
