Manipur: Shutdown in Kangpokpi amid fresh violence, CoTU warns govt against repeating 2023 ‘mistakes’

A complete shutdown was observed across Manipur's Kangpokpi district on Tuesday, September 1, following the killing of three villagers in an alleged militant attack, while the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) warned the state government against repeating what it called the "mistakes" that led to the widespread violence in 2023.

The 24-hour shutdown began at 5 am and is scheduled to end at 5 am on Wednesday. Shops and business establishments remained closed and vehicular movement was largely off the roads across the district.

The shutdown was called by CoTU to protest the killing of three villagers — a man and two women — in an alleged attack on N Teikhang Kuki-Zo village in the Twilang area along the Imphal-Tamenglong Road, popularly known as the IT Road, on August 31.

Kuki groups have alleged that cadres of NSCN-IM and ZUF-K were behind the attack. The allegations could not be independently verified.

The bodies of the three victims were brought to Kangpokpi District Hospital late Monday night by district police and central security forces and kept at the morgue, officials said. Relatives and villagers gathered at the hospital as tension and anger mounted in the area.

During the shutdown, volunteers reportedly attempted to block roads by placing boulders and cutting down trees along the IT Road, affecting movement in parts of the region, including that of security forces.

The shutdown also coincided with fresh incidents of violence in the Twilang area in the early hours of Tuesday, according to local sources. Several people from the Kuki side were reportedly injured by bullets.

Kuki and Naga groups have traded allegations over attacks in the area, with Kuki organisations accusing Naga groups of targeting their villages and Naga groups making counter-allegations.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the shutdown, CoTU spokesperson Ng Lun Kipgen alleged that repeated incidents of violence in the hill districts since the beginning of the year had brought the Twilang area close to a wider confrontation.

"The continued violence and aggression by the Tangkhul-led NSCN-IM and its proxy, ZUF-K militants, are creating havoc in the Twilang area of the IT Road region in Kangpokpi. It is now on the verge of a full-scale conflict," he alleged.

Kipgen urged Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh's government to act immediately and not repeat what he described as the errors of the previous government during the violence that erupted on May 3, 2023.

"The May 3 mayhem in 2023 could have been averted and contained had the then Chief Minister taken the right steps at the right time," he said.

"We appeal to the current dispensation not to make the same mistakes of 2023. Rather, take immediate steps to avoid another full-scale conflict in the hills," he added.

Kipgen said CoTU had already conveyed its demands to the government through Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen during a protest held on Monday.

"The ball is now in the court of the government," he said, adding that the organisation would assess the administration's response before consulting stakeholders and deciding its next course of action.

He warned that further protests could follow if the government's response was not satisfactory.

"If the government response is not satisfactory even after the expiry of the shutdown, we will resort to more extreme democratic forms of agitation," he said.

With fresh violence reported amid the shutdown, the situation in the Twilang-IT Road belt remained tense on Tuesday, with concerns over further escalation in the hill districts.