‘Love you, mom’ : The last words of Tronglaobi terror victim

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 12 : With a sweet and innocent voice, Oinam Tomthin said, “Mama Nungshi” (I love you, mom) and went to sleep in the warmth of his mother’s bosom never to wake up again.
Five-year-old Oinam Tomthin and his five-month-old sister, Oinam Yaisana were put to death in the most inhuman manner when Kuki terrorists struck their house with a powerful bomb in the wee hours of April 7, 2026 at Tronglaobi, Bishnupur district.
Their mother, Oinam Binita too suffered critical injuries in the terror attack and is currently undergoing treatment at Raj Medicity.
With two lovely babies snatched away in the most merciless manner, the life of Binita will never be the same again even though she is recuperating physically.    
In the quiet corner of a room at Raj Medicity, the air is thick not just with the smell of medicine, but with a grief so heavy it feels tangible. It is the grief of Oinam Binita, the young mother whose world was dismantled in a single moment of terrorism.
They say a mother’s heart is the heartbeat of the home. But for Binita, that heart has broken into pieces.
The terror attack by Kuki militants didn't just claim lives; it stole the "mother" out of her soul. Since the day she lost her two beloved children, Binita has existed in a state of suspended agony.
Those who sat by her bedside described a scene that would break the strongest of spirits. Binita often drifts into a semi-conscious state, her mind seemingly searching for her children in a place where the violence cannot reach them.
In her moments of lucidity, she cries out—not for justice or for revenge—but for her children.
"I want to hear the sweet voice of my children," she whispered through tears that never seem to dry.
To lose one child is a tragedy that defies language; to lose two is a cruelty that leaves a person completely hollow.
Her family watches helplessly as she struggles to eat or drink, her body physically rejecting a world where she will never ever again see the lovely faces or hear the sweet voices of her children.
Speaking in a voice choked with emotion and despair on her hospital bed today, Binita expressed an unfathomable feeling of betrayal.  
She said that they felt abandoned by the very systems meant to keep them safe.
“As a personnel of the armed forces, my husband  has been defending the country. We thought that the security forces deployed here would protect us but I suffered the greatest and costliest betrayal of my life”, Binita said.
“If there were no security forces around our village, I would have stayed awake the whole night and my children would not have lost their lives. I slept beside my two children thinking that the security forces will protect us”, the young mother said in a voice reeking of despair.
She also questioned the security forces’ failure to prevent the terror attack and their inability to nab the perpetrators even after six days.
While praying that her devastating fate may not befall upon any other mother, Binita vowed that she will not lose courage but fight on until justice is done to her children.
In the next moment, she said she wished she was killed and her children spared.    
“We lived in our house thinking that security forces were protecting us but now we feel sacred to live in that house”, she said vividly reflecting the State’s failure to protect citizens and their property.
She went on to ask where they shall live when they cannot live peacefully in their own house.
In the face of such darkness, one member of the shattered family asked, “How much more must we endure before we can simply live in peace?” She said the trauma is twofold for them: the immediate loss of their flesh and blood, and the lingering fear that home is no longer a sanctuary.