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Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Kuki groups seek maintaining of buffer zones as ‘protective' step
New Delhi: Kuki groups on Saturday demanded that buffer zones should be maintained in Manipur as a 'protective measure' unless a comprehensive political solution such as a Union Territory with legislature is achieved. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now At a press conference here, co-convener of Kuki Zo Women Forum Chong Haokip reiterated the demand for carving out a Union Territory with legislature from Manipur and said, "This is not against any community, this is a step required to ensure safety and right to existence of Kuki people." She said this demand should not be seen from a political angle, but as one required for safety and peace. "Kuki-Zo tribals have been chased out of Imphal, killed like animals. We were treated like enemies. We were killed because of our identity and the security forces didn't intervene in time. Govt could have saved us, but they didn't do anything," Haokip said. "Those living in Imphal for years were dislocated. The faith of Kuki-Zo people has been shaken. Despite having police, our people were being killed," she said. C Thangminlal Doungel, interim president of Kuki Students' Organisation Delhi & NCR, said buffer zones were a critical measure taken to halt violence and restore order. "Unless a political solution is found, the buffer zones must be maintained. The status quo is required because so far, peace has not been achieved," he said. The Kuki representatives also said their demand is within the tenets of the Constitution. "So many states have been reorganised, recently, Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised into two Union Territories. So what is the thing about Manipur's integrity? The Constitution recognises integrity of the country, not of any state," said advocate Vishwajeet Singh. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The KSO Delhi & NCR also demanded in a statement that the govt should "fence the buffer zones". "The buffer zones must remain intact and enforced until a comprehensive political solution such as a Union Territory with legislature for the Kuki-Zo-is achieved. If the majoritarian govt is so hell bent on border fencing — it must also fence the buffer zones as that will act as permanent deterrent to the fragile peace in Manipur," the KSO said. PTI
Hindustan Times
03-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Neither dead nor alive: Search for Manipur's missing haunts families
For nearly 21 months Ngamkholin Haokip (45) refused to allow leaders of his tribal community to put his missing daughter's photograph, beside hundreds of other photographs at the Kangpokpi town's Wall of Remembrance – a memorial in the middle of the town with pictures of those killed in Manipur's ethnic clashes. Also Read: Two years on, women who became tragic symbols of Manipur horror live in shadows Haokip's daughter, Hoineilam(27), a Kuki-Zo tribal, went missing on May 4, 2023, from the state Capital Imphal -- a day after ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki-Zo groups started across the state. Hoineilam was not among the 25-30 thousand Kuki-Zo people rescued from the valley districts by security forces and shifted to the hills for their safety. Also Read: Manipur shuts down to mark 2 years of clashes, sees widespread public support Her body was also not among those found charred, lynched, shot, or stabbed to death in the valley during the first few days of the clashes. Two years later, it had still not been found. And so, sometime in February this year, Haokip allowed his daughter's photograph to be put up among the dead -- the most recent addition in the wall of at least 150 such photographs. In Imphal valley, for nearly a year, former Manipur police officer, S Ibungobi, refused to hold his missing son's funeral. Ibungobi is the father of P Hemanjit Singh(20), the young Meitei man who was abducted along with his friend, a 17-year-old girl, by Kuki militants on July 6, 2023. Also Read: Manipur: 22, including 12 security personnel, injured in land dispute clash Two months later, photographs of the two surfaced on social media. The photographs showed them surrounded by armed men. Another photo showed them lying dead on the ground. As the photographs went viral, outrage turned to protests, and senior CBI officers were flown in from New Delhi to recover the bodies. But despite police, paramilitary forces and CBI teams conducting extensive searches in the hill districts of Churachandpur and Kangkopki, the bodies could not be found. Sometime in August 2024, Ibungobi held his son's funeral. A banana stem was used as a replica for Singh's body, according to the local ritual. In the ongoing ethnic conflict between the state's two communities that has left at least 260 dead and rendered nearly 60000 homeless, there are at least three dozen cases of people reported missing, feared killed and secretly buried in areas where the communities cannot enter because both Meiteis and Kuki-Zos have retreated to their respective strongholds. But while the communities are still divided on ethnic lines , there is strong agreement on need to find the missing people, or at least their bodies. With no major incident of violence reported in the last five months and the state currently under Centre (President's rule), the families of those missing are hoping security forces can finally scan the length and breadth of the state to find the missing bodies. Kabita Devi, wife of former journalist Atom Samarendra Singh, believed to have been abducted by Kuki militants, along with his Meitei friend on May 6, 2023, said, "Police initially said my husband and his friend were abducted and their bodies are buried in Kuki areas where they cannot enter. Now that President's Rule is in place, law and order should be the same for all places in Manipur. Why can't the forces now go to the areas and find my husband or his body? Even to get a job on compassionate grounds and take care of my family, the government insists on a death certificate. But then the same government says, they must wait for at least seven years to issue the certificate.' Singh's case isn't unique -- people have disappeared from just about anywhere; a recent mystery was about a man who disappeared from a high security military compound in the state On November 11, 2024, Kamal Babu Laisharam, a supervisor at the Indian Army's 57 Mountain Division campus in Leimakhong -- sandwiched between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo areas -- was reported missing. There was evidence of Babu entering the campus on his scooter that morning but no signs of either man or vehicle leaving. 'My uncle's entry inside the Leimakhong military campus along with the CCTV footage of November 11, 2025, is there. But there is no record of him exiting. Even his scooter has not been found. The Indian Army used helicopters and drones for days to search for him or his scooter,' his nephew Ibo Singh said. Singh said the family suspects Kamal Babu may have been abducted on a 500m-long deserted stretch within the army campus, where Kuki-Zo workers were carrying out some construction. Unlike other parts of the state, where Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribals live in their respective strongholds, the army compound has civilians from both communities working inside. Civilians use the compound's separate gates to enter from their respective villages -- each trying not to use the gate next to the other community's village. 'We all suspect he was snatched by Kuki-Zo workers on a deserted stretch within the campus where there are no cameras. Most probably, they used a civilian truck (carrying construction material) to bundle him and his scooter and leave the campus. But there is no evidence to support this theory. Police are clueless. It is strange that a person simply vanish from a military compound,' Ibo Singh added. With the second anniversary of the conflict held on Saturday, the civil society groups from both communities are demanding that the Manipur administration to find the missing people. Athouba Khujairam, convener of the influential Meitei group, COCOMI said,' President's Rule has been in place for four months now. How long will families continue to wait for a closure? ' Thanglen Kipgen, President of the Kuki-Zo body, Committee on Tribal Unity(COTU), said, ' Remember the viral videos of our two village volunteers who were shot dead by Meitei people last year and their body parts chopped and used as trophies? Their bodies are still buried somewhere in the valley where the Meitei people reside. The administration could not stop the murders or arrest the gunmen. The least they can do it to recover bodies of our people so they can be buried in our land.' Senior Manipur police officials said that none of the missing cases has been closed. Even two years after the violence, at the Classic Hotel in Imphal, CBI still has a helpdesk named 'CBI reception' urging people to come forward with information about the crimes of the Manipur conflict. The hotel's fourth floor is still the agency's makeshift office for its investigators. One officer at the hotel, who asked not to be named, said, 'The state is finally limping back to normalcy. Now that violence is reducing, sooner or later, some person will come forward with information that will help us. It may take time, but the location of the bodies can't be a secret forever."
NDTV
01-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
"Day We Get Settlement...": Kuki Militants' Umbrella Body Spokesperson On Manipur's Territorial Integrity
New Delhi: The spokesperson of an umbrella body of 17 Kuki insurgent groups in Manipur has expressed hope in achieving separation from the state while it is under the President's rule. Seilen Haokip, the spokesperson of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), also explained the nuances of the words "territorial integrity of Manipur" as mentioned in the ground rules of the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement. "... There is no apprehension about the role of SoO and political demand being diminished in any way," Mr Haokip said in response to a question on political unity during a 'Space' session on X on April 27. "In fact, President's rule is a time when the state government has been put on an animated suspension. And this is the time we can move forward if we are united and allow the government to take its course of action. So, this is a good time for us," Mr Haokip said. "Because earlier, whenever in the last two years, for instance, the government tried to initiate their commitment with the SoO groups, somehow or the other the chief minister would cause problems in some places to divert the process of SoO talks. Now, we have that out of the way," Mr Haokip said, referring to former chief minister N Biren Singh, who belongs to the Meitei community and who the Kuki tribes hold responsible for the outbreak of ethnic hostilities. The former chief minister has refuted the allegations. He maintains his government's actions such as crackdown on illegal immigrants, illegal opium poppy cultivation, and forest encroachers were not aimed at any particular community. "But, as I mentioned earlier, the problem I have encountered is more of our internal issues, namely over nomenclature or in terms of discounting SoO in ways that they think are true. On that count I have stated in numerous places, name one thing that the SoO have done that is counter to our political demands? Have we ever compromised, have we ever reneged on any of the points of commitments? No. So, I hope that response will completely dispel any notion of disunity in that respect or any kind of waning in terms of engagement," Mr Haokip said. Twenty-five insurgent groups of the Kuki, Zomi and Hmar tribes come under two umbrella organisations for the purpose of negotiations with India - the KNO, of which Mr Haokip is the spokesperson, and the United People's Front (UPF) led by the Zomi Revolutionary Army. The KNO is led by the Kuki National Army. The KNO representing 17 armed groups and the UPF representing eight armed groups signed the tripartite SoO agreement with the Centre and the state government as part of wider political talks. They had been negotiating for a territorial council, until the demand changed to complete separation from Manipur after the breakout of ethnic clashes two years ago. The valley-dominant Meiteis are against the division of Manipur, while the Kuki tribes in southern Manipur's hill districts and some areas in the northern parts want a separate administration or 'Kukiland' carved out from Manipur. To a question for clarity on the mention of "territorial integrity of Manipur" in the SoO agreement, Mr Haokip said the issue of Manipur's territorial integrity will no longer be applicable after the Kuki tribes get the political solution they have been seeking. "Territorial integrity was a clause inserted by the government of Manipur at a time - if you want to categorise it - pre-3rd May, the preceding years. And at that point our demand was for a territorial council. So there is no contradiction in terms where you have territorial council and territorial integrity because TC [territorial council] was to be within Manipur," Mr Haokip said in the 'Space' session on X, where he also took questions. "It was a clause that was disliked immensely, but technically there was no contradiction because the territorial council was to be within Manipur. However, post 3rd May, things have changed, there has been a paradigm shift. The clause territorial integrity does not make any meaning to us anymore. It is irrelevant to us anymore. But technically, it is still there in the preamble of the SoO ground rules, not in the political dialogue platform," Mr Haokip said. There are two distinct platforms - SoO, which refers to the ground rules; there, the Constitution of India is in the first paragraph of the preamble, and secondly, the state government had inserted the territorial integrity clause, Mr Haokip said. "Post 3rd May, until we have settlement for the SoO preamble section, that [territorial integrity clause] will remain. It will remain in the sense... Let me try to explain - post 3rd May, the assertion of the terms Lamka and Kangui has gained momentum. However, until we have a settlement, the official terms will still be Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. And that will be the same with respect to the territorial integrity clause. The day we have our settlement, automatically the territorial integrity element will be irrelevant, of no consequence, and we will have the right to officially call Lamka town Lamka, and Kangpokpi district Kangui," Mr Haokip said. While Meitei civil society groups have alleged SoO group insurgents of taking part in the Manipur violence under the guise of 'village volunteers', the Kuki tribes have pointed back at Meitei insurgents who they claimed returned from conflict-hit Myanmar to attack Kuki villages. The first time the Manipur Police said they found evidence of SoO group and Meitei insurgents involved in the fighting was in September 2024, when they recovered five bodies in Jiribam district following a gunfight. Three were confirmed as insurgents of the SoO signatory Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) from Churachandpur district; the fourth was a Kuki volunteer from Jiribam, and the fifth was identified as a member of the Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front (Pambei), or UNLF(P), which signed a ceasefire with the Centre and the state in November 2023 - the first and oldest Meitei insurgent group to sign a ceasefire. There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes under the Kuki community, including 'Any Kuki Tribes', have killed over 260 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000. The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.
