Kuki organizations are demanding justice after a Kuki woman from Manipur died from an illness allegedly linked to the trauma she suffered after being gang-raped in 2023. They allege government inaction and demand an independent probe.
The Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO), Delhi and NCR, has voiced strong opposition to the current Manipur government, citing a lack of legitimacy and demanding a separate administration for Kuki-Zo people amid ongoing ethnic tensions and displacement.
It said all necessary security arrangements would be made to ensure the security of people attending the Shirui festival.
Representatives from Kuki-Zo communities said their demands have crossed the point where they wanted President's rule to be imposed in the state, and now they see a Union Territory with legislature on the lines of Puducherry carved out of Manipur as the only solution to the ongoing strife.
The shutdown was called by Kuki-Zo groups, including the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Kuki Students Organisation (KSO), in protest against Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh's statement about militants entering the state from outside.
All marketplaces in the town were deserted and attendance in government and private offices was nil. Schools and colleges also remained shut, officials said.
Security forces fired several rounds in the air to disperse the mob, officials said.
Most of the Kuki MLAs irrespective of their party affiliations are unlikely to attend the Manipur assembly session slated to be called from August 21 in view of the continued ethnic violence, according to leaders from the community.
The area was a theatre of violence for several years since Naga-Kuki ethnic clash broke out in 1993 and the civilian Kuki tribe population suffered severely in that war zone.
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