Bodies of the 12 Kuki-Zo youths, whose funeral will take place on Thursday, were taken out from the morgue and sent to the respective families, a leading organisation of the community said.
The funeral of the youths, including the 10 killed in the gunfight with the Central Reserve Police Force in Jiribam district, will take place in Churachandpur, in which Mizoram Chief Minister's adviser H Ginzalala will also participate, it said.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum has also called for a complete shutdown in Churachandpur from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm in honour of the deceased men.
"The bodies were taken to the respective families at 2 pm today. As they will be put to rest tomorrow, the family will spend the last night with them," ITLF spokesperson Ginza Vualzong told PTI on Wednesday evening.
The families will bring the bodies of their loved ones on Thursday morning and thereafter everything will proceed as per plans, he said.
According to the schedule shared with the press, the funeral will be attended by Ginzalala, who is the Adviser (Technical) to Mizoram CM Lalduhoma, and also a ZPM MLA.
"Yes, Mr Ginzalala has confirmed his presence and it is a big support to us. It shows that the Mizoram government is with us in our crisis period," said a senior ITLF leader, who did not wish to be named.
The entire funeral programme has been divided into two sessions.
The first one will begin at 11 am in Peace Ground in Tuibuong, where people from all sections of society will pay their respects.
The second session will be from 2 pm at Martyrs Cemetery in Sehken, where the deceased will be given a "gun salute by village volunteers", followed by the burial of the bodies.
The ITLF had at first said the funeral of the Kuki-Zo youths would not be conducted till their post-mortem reports were handed over to the families.
After the bodies were airlifted from Silchar to Churachandpur on November 16, they were kept in the Churachandpur District Hospital morgue.
After receiving the post-mortem reports, the ITLF on November 30 announced that the funeral would take place on December 5.
The Manipur Police on November 11 had claimed that 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately at Borobekra police station and an adjacent CRPF camp at Jakuradhor in Jiribam district.
The other two deceased were Kuki youths killed by suspected armed Meitei men when they were visiting their families.
According to the autopsy reports, the 10 Kuki-Zo youths killed in the alleged gunfight received multiple fatal bullet injuries and most of them were fired from their back.
All bodies bore the wounds of multiple bullet entry and exit marks, even more than a dozen in some of the deceased, the post-mortem examination reports mentioned.
More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.
It started after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
Meiteis account for about 53 percent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley.
Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- are a little over 40 percent of the population and live in the hill districts.
