Kuki outfits enforce 'indefinite shutdown' in Manipur's Churachandpur amid fears of fresh escalation

Markets and business establishments remained closed, while vehicular movement was disrupted as Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum activists, including women, blocked several roads in the district.

Imphal: Organisations representing both Kuki and Meitei communities in strife-torn Manipur on Friday staged protests and questioned the role of the central forces, a day after a Kuki woman was killed and a Meitei farmer was injured in fresh conflicts along the "buffer zone."

A Meitei farmer, aged about 60, received bullet injury due to firing allegedly by Kuki insurgents in an area along Bishnupur-Churachandpur district. Manipur police on Thursday night said the wife of a Kuki village chief died in "cross firing" during a combing operation launched following injury to the Meitei farmer. Police said the incident took place when the security forces retaliated to firing by Kuki insurgents.

Shutdown

Kuki organisations on Friday enforced an "indefinite shutdown" in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts and questioned the role by the central forces to maintain peace along the "buffer zones."

"The security personnel responsible for the killing of the Kuki village chief's wife must be identified, booked and punished in accordance with the law," Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a forum of Kuki organisations, said in a memorandum to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

The ITLF also urged the Governor to strictly maintain "sanctity" of the buffer zones between the Meitei and Kuki-dominated districts till a solution to the conflict was reached.

Farmers' wing of Co-Ordination Committee on Manipur Unity, an organisation of the Meiteis, also alleged failure of the security forces over the firing on the farmer allegedly by the Kuki insurgents.

Manipur has remained under President's Rule since February due to the conflict. Thursday's fresh firings was seen as a setback to efforts by the administration to restore peace in the state that has remained on the boil since May 2023.

More than 260 people have died and over 60,000 others displaced, both in the valley and the hills, due to the conflict since May 2023.