Kuki-Zo community in Manipur marks 5 months of unrest with coffin rally, vigil, and strike

On Tuesday, the Kuki-Zo community in the Kangpokpi district "celebrated five months" of the Manipur disturbance with a coffin rally, candlelight vigil, and a 15-hour strike that disrupted daily life.

In order to "pay tribute to the Kuki-Zo martyrs" who perished in the unrest and to "draw the attention" of the government to resolve the ongoing conflict that erupted on May 3 by fulfilling the political aspirations of the Kuki-Zo people, the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), a civil society organization of Kuki-Zo people from the Kangpokpi district, organized the events and called the shutdown.

After all they have "suffered" during the current conflict, the Kuki-Zo people feel they "can no longer live in the Meitei-majority Imphal valley" and are calling for a separate government.

The candlelight vigil and the symbolic half-kilometer coffin rally, according to the CoTU representative from the Kuki-Zo majority Kangpokpi district, finished at seven o'clock.

"On Tuesday, the fighting will have lasted five months. We held a candlelight memorial to honor the deceased and show our support for the martyrs' families after marching with 10 symbolic coffins to mark the occasion, he said.

Numerous individuals attended the memorial service at the Brig. M. Thomas Ground in Kangpokpi town. They observed a moment of silence as community volunteers lined up the coffins. Kuki-Zo chiefs honored the deceased by covering the coffin with a garland.

As part of the commemoration, the CoTU member said: "The 15-hour Kangpokpi shutdown was called from 6am to guarantee that everyone participated. Additionally, we wanted to keep the central government informed about the ongoing conflict, which has now lasted for five months and needs to be resolved.

Over 67,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing fighting between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur, which has cost at least 176 lives. In four morgues, three in the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley and one in the Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur, at least 96 remains are still unclaimed.

According to sources, a CoTU leader demanded that President's rule be imposed, that Chief Minister N. Biren Singh be ousted, and that AFSPA be reinstated in 19 valley stations in his speech. He claims that 140 Kuki-Zo people have died in the fighting thus far.

Even if the ongoing protests in Kangpokpi may get more intense over the coming days, the ongoing indefinite shutdown of another Kuki-Zo majority district, Churachandpur, was called off on Tuesday evening.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), a coalition of Kuki-Zo civil society organizations from the Churachandpur district that had called for the immediate release of those detained and arrested by the CBI and the NIA, claimed they withdrew the bandh after "considering the hardship of the people" and "we felt we made our grievances known to the government".

Four people from Churachandpur were detained by the CBI in connection with the suspected kidnapping and murder of two Meitei students from Imphal. On July 6, the deceased went missing. Their bodies have not yet been located.

Additionally, the CBI flew two of the accused's children to Guwahati and delivered them to the Kamrup child protection officer. On the other side, the NIA had detained one individual from Churachandpur in connection with a "transnational conspiracy" investigation.

Like the one in Kangpokpi on Tuesday, the shutdown in Churachandpur on Wednesday was total and calm.

If the Union home ministry does not secure the release of those detained by the CBI and the NIA before its deadline expires on Thursday, the CoTU has already declared the beginning of an ongoing bandh in the Kangpokpi district beginning on October 5.