Kuki group serves 48-hour 'deadline' for withdrawal of paramilitary forces rushed from Imphal to Kangpokpi

Guwahati: Two days after SP of Kangpokpi district was injured in a mob attack, the Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), a Kuki-Zo organisation in Manipur, on Sunday served a "deadline" of 48 hours for withdrawal of all paramilitary forces from the Kuki-dominated districts, which were rushed in recently from Imphal.

Manipur police on Friday night said the SP of Kangpokpi, Manoj Prabhakar, was injured after a mob went berserk during a protest programme called by COTU with a demand for the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from the Saibol area in Kangpokpi.

The COTU also imposed an indefinite "economic blockade" on NH-2, connecting the Meitei-dominated Valley with the Hills, and a "shutdown" with a demand for the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from Saibol, which were rushed in from Imphal recently.

The organisation, however, decided to withdraw the "economic blockade" after a battalion of the CRPF was reportedly withdrawn from Saibol. The battalion was replaced by another one which was already deployed in Kangpokpi.

Additional CRPF and BSF troops were rushed from Imphal to the Saibol area recently after suspected Kuki insurgents allegedly opened fire on Meitei villages in Imphal East that shares a boundary with Kangpokpi. Police said many "armed militants" were flushed out and several "bunkers" were dismantled from the area by the troops.

But COTU claimed that CRPF and BSF teams were rushed from Imphal in order to harass the Kuki-Zo persons, who were guarding their villages against possible attack by "armed militants" belonging to the Meitei community.

"The COTU would be forced to resort to a more stringent mode of agitation until and unless the remaining central paramilitary forces deployed from the Valley is withdrawn from the said region/areas within 48-hours from the time of withdrawal of economic blockade," COTU said in a statement on Sunday.

The Meitei-dominated Valley and the Kuki-dominated hill districts have remained physically divided since the Meitei-Kuki conflict erupted in May 2023. More than 250 people have died and over 60,000 others have been displaced due to the conflict. Sporadic incidents of violence have kept the state on the boil despite the presence of a large number of central forces including the Army.