The video is 32 seconds long. A man lies on the ground in Churachandpur, Manipur. Gunshots. He stops moving. The video ends.
That man was a Meitei married to a Kuki-Zo woman. In the ethnic violence tearing Manipur apart for the past 20 months, that made him a target.
A billion people aren't a statistic - they're a billion stories. This is the story of how loving across ethnic lines can get you killed in India's northeast, and how the violence continues while the rest of the country looks away.
The killing
The victim, whose identity has been withheld pending family notification, was shot dead in Churachandpur district in an area controlled by Kuki-Zo armed groups. According to the Indian Express, the video circulating on social media shows the moment of his death - and contains what witnesses describe as a "chilling message" about the fate of interfaith couples.
He was a Meitei man from the valley, Manipur's Meitei-majority lowlands. He had married a Kuki-Zo woman from the hills. In normal times, this would be unremarkable - communities in Manipur have intermarried for generations.
These are not normal times.
Since May 2023, Manipur has been gripped by ethnic violence between the Meitei majority and Kuki-Zo tribal groups. More than 250 people have been killed. Tens of thousands have been displaced. The state has effectively split into ethnic enclaves, with armed groups controlling territory and paramilitaries unable or unwilling to stop them.
And increasingly, interfaith couples - people whose marriages cross ethnic lines - are being targeted.
The pattern
This is not the first such killing. In recent months, multiple cases have emerged of people in mixed marriages being attacked, threatened, or forced to flee their homes. The message from extremists on both sides is clear: you're either with your ethnic group, or you're a traitor.
