Three Kuki-Zo village volunteers killed in firing in Manipur’s Tengnoupal

Three village volunteers of the Kuki-Zo community were allegedly killed on Friday (August 9, 2024) morning after district authorities in Manipur’s Tengnoupal confirmed that firing was reported near the Molnoi village area around 9:30 a.m., according to police officials and community members aware of the incident.

The Manipur Police has said that the firing was reported on Friday (August 9, 2024) morning and a joint operation was launched immediately by the security forces, including the Border Security Force and the Assam Rifles, posted in the area.

Officials said search operations revealed that a house in the Molnom village area was burnt down. The house allegedly belonged to one S.S. Haokip, purportedly associated with the United Kuki Liberation Front, an insurgent group part of a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the Government of India.

While senior police officers in Tengnoupal told The Hindu that they were yet to find any dead bodies by Friday (August 9, 2024) evening in the area, sources in the Kuki-Zo civil society organisations (CSO) have said that the bodies of the three village volunteers had been accounted for and were being kept in a Kuki-Zo village near the area.

The sources added that the firing was a result of a “misunderstanding” between one of the SoO groups and groups of village volunteers, both of whom have been standing guard at the Kuki-Zo side of the buffer zone ever since the conflict began.

“The CSOs in the area, including branches of the Kuki Inpi, the apex tribe body of Kuki tribes in Manipur, are currently negotiating what to do with the bodies and who should be conducting the last rites for them,” one source said.

An official of the Kuki Inpi in Manipur explained that whenever a village volunteer is killed, a discussion is held over whether the CSOs should bury them as ‘martyrs’ lost to the conflict in the common burial place or if the families want any other arrangement.

Superintendent of Police, Tengnoupal, Rahul Gupta told The Hindu, “Search operations are ongoing in the area and more information will be available soon.”

The ethnic conflict in Manipur between the valley-based Meitei people and the hills-based Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo people has been going on for over a year now. More than 220 people have been killed in the conflict and tens of thousands of others injured and internally displaced.