The police said that the villagers had buried the bodies without informing them about the incident.
Unofficial reports said the three children, including a girl, aged between 5 to 12, were killed while they were playing with a hand grenade that was picked up from a jungle at Senvon along the Manipur-Mizoram border yesterday morning.
Senvon is located about 30km from Parbung police station.
According to reports, the villagers after hearing a loud explosion at 9.30am yesterday rushed to the site only to find the minors dead. The spot is not very far from the village and children venture out to play or collect dry firewood on a regular basis.
The victims have been identified as Lalziding, 12, Lalmalsawm, 9 and Laroukim, 5.
The police at the district headquarters said they were informed about the incident only in the evening. “We are trying to gather details. The matter is still under investigation,” a police source said.
G.B. Sharma, the district superintendent of police, said the bodies would be exhumed and post mortem conducted, possibly in the village itself.
The district police authorities have already taken an order from district magistrate Jacintha Lazarus for exhuming the body and conducting post mortem as a part of the investigation into the case.
“We will send a police team along with a medical team to the village. The team will take time to reach the village as it is located in the interior of the district and the roads are very bad,” the police official said.
Sources said that some militants could have camped in the area and dropped the grenade. Parbung was a stronghold of various militant groups. The militants left the area after the army moved into the area in early 2006.
The army launched the operation under the code name Operation Dragnet.
The police declined to disclose whether they were contemplating action against the villagers for burying the bodies without informing them.
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