Manipur’s Ethnic Cleansing: A State-Sanctioned Atrocity Demanding Global Attention

The final days of 2025 did not merely reveal tragedy in Manipur; they exposed a deliberate and ongoing crime against humanity. Two horrific incidents serve as undeniable proof: the Kuki-Zo people are not just neglected—they are being systematically erased through a calculated campaign of violence and engineered deprivation, abetted by state authorities.

In mid-December, three Kuki children—Henhunhao Baite (10), Jamgunsei Baite (8), and Ngamguang Haokip (8)—were torn apart by an unexploded mortar shell in Molnoi village. This was not a relic of a forgotten war. It is a live weapon from a coordinated October 2023 assault on their village by Meitei militias operating alongside Manupur state security forces. Let that fact stand: organs of the state participated in an attack that left ordnance to maim children years later. Their survival is owed solely to the personal heroism of 26th Sector Assam Rifles Commander, Brigadier Robeen Chatterji, which underscores a monstrous truth: the elected government of Manipur has abandoned its duty to provide even the most basic medical care. Tengnoupal district has no trauma centers, no emergency hospitals—by design.

Days later, the policy of isolation claimed more lives. Two Kuki-Zo volunteers, Pu Jimmy Nengsuanpau (52) and Pu Lamlalsang (47), drowned when the community ambulance was swept away. They died because the Manipur state government has deliberately severed Kuki-Zo areas from the rest of the state and actively blocks community-built lifelines. The bridge project at Shilloitha—a humanitarian necessity—was halted by the state. This is not neglect; this is socio-economic strangulation as a tool of ethnic cleansing.

We must stop using euphemisms. This is not "violence" or "strife." Since May 3, 2023, this has been ethnic cleansing. Over 250 dead. Over 60,000 displaced. Villages erased. A population confined to ghettos in the hills, cut off from healthcare, education, and livelihoods, while unexploded ordnance terrorizes their children.

The contrast is damning. While the state government enforces isolation and blocks aid, the Assam Rifles, a central force, repeatedly performs the state’s basic duties. This exposes the chilling reality: the crisis in Manipur is not a failure of capacity, but a failure of political will at the highest levels of the Manipur government, enabled by the deafening silence of New Delhi.

Also Read: A Dangerous ‘Safety’ Guarantee Exposes the Crisis of Impunity in Manipur

We must now ask the questions India and the world have avoided:

 How much longer will the Government of India tolerate a constituent state that actively pursues the ethnic cleansing of its own citizens?

When will the international community officially recognize that crimes against humanity are being perpetrated under the cover of India’s domestic jurisdiction?

Why are humanitarian aid and infrastructure—the building of a simple bridge—treated as criminal acts by the Manipur authorities?

India’s democratic credentials are rotting in the hills of Manipur. To label this a “law and order problem” is a cowardly lie. It is a constitutional collapse and a moral bankruptcy.

The tragedies of late 2025 are not a plea for sympathy. They are an indictment. They are evidence for a future tribunal. Justice requires not just aid, but accountability: for the architects of violence, for the officials who block bridges, and for the powers in Delhi who look away.

History will judge this moment not by India’s economic growth but by its abandonment of the minority population Kuki-Zo people. The silence is not just complicit; it is condemnation.