'Peace must come from Meitei side too': Kuki groups at Delhi meeting with Home Ministry

Guwahati: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday told the Kuki organisations in conflict-torn Manipur to maintain peace for finding a solution, to which the groups replied that peace must be from the Meitei side too.

A four-member delegation of Kuki Zo Council (KZC), a forum of all major organisations representing the Kuki Zo communities, met MHA officials in a private hotel in New Delhi on Friday, for the first time since the conflict between the Meiteis and the Kukis erupted in May 2023. More than 250 people have died and over 60,000 others displaced but sporadic conflict have kept Manipur still on the boil.

"It was a kind of ice-breaker meeting. After the introduction, the MHA officials asked us to maintain peace in order to find a solution. But we conveyed that the peace must be maintained from the Meitei side too. If the Meiteis attack our villages and our people, we will have no option but to retaliate in defence," Ginza Vualzong, the spokesperson of the council, told DH over phone after the meeting. Vualzong was part of the KZC delegation.

Chairman of the council, Henlianthang Thanglet led the delegation while MHA advisor for Northeast, AK Mishra headed the government side. The meeting lasted for more than an hour, he said.

The Kuki Zo Council was formed in October last year as the highest decision making body with representatives from all major organisations representing the communities.

On Friday, the council also submitted a memorandum addressed to Home Minister Amit Shah, in which it reiterated that a "separate administration" in the form of a Union Territory with a legislature is the only way to restore peace and end the conflict.

Vualzong had earlier told DH that the council team would endorse the demand for "separate administration" by the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People's Front (UPF), the two umbrella organisations of at least 25 armed groups representing Kuki Zo communities.

The groups have been in Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the government since 2008. Leaders of the groups and their cadres are lodged in several "designated camps" in Manipur's Kuki-dominated districts.

But Meiteis are opposed to the demands. The Meiteis demand abrogation of the SoO and implementation of a National Register of Citizens in order to detect "illegal migrants" from neighbouring Myanmar. They allege that many Kukis are "illegal migrants" and have posed a threat to the identity of the Meiteis.

Drugs haul

Assam Rifles on Friday said they recovered drugs worth Rs. 62 crores from Mata village in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district on Thursday. The drugs included brown sugar worth Rs. 12 crores and Yaba tablets priced around Rs. 50 crores.

The drugs were on their way from Myanmar to Churachandpur. Two persons including a woman were arrested, Assam Rifles said in a statement.