The Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) on Wednesday staged a protest rally in Churachandpur besides writing to Union home minister Amit Shah against the “continued state-backed persecution, arbitrary arrests and systematic injustice meted out to” community members.
Dressed in black and carrying placards, the women protesters staged the one-hour protest rally from 11.30am, covering a distance of nearly 5km from Koite Ground to Peace Ground in inclement weather and then submitted a three-page memorandum to Shah through the Churachandpur administration.
In its memorandum, the KWOHR said: “Despite our peaceful protest and the submission of a detailed memorandum to your esteemed office on 31st May 2025, the crisis has worsened. The latest arrests on 6th June 2025 of two more Kuki men namely, Mr. Thangneo Kipgen of Molnomphai, Churachandpur, and Mr. Kamginthang Gangte of Moreh, Tengnoupal under unclear and unjustifiable circumstances, have further intensified public outrage and had eroded of what little faith remains in the institutions of justice.”
The Kuki-Zo community has “consistently” upheld the law, sought democratic redress, and called for peace. “Yet, what we are witnessing is the continued criminalisation of our identity, collective punishment and blatant disregard for constitutional safeguards,” the memorandum said.
Flagging the “arbitrary arrests” of Kuki-Zo individuals by NIA and CBI “without” clear evidence, the organisation said the arrests “form part of a deliberate pattern of selective targeting, where only Kuki-Zo citizens are investigated, detained and vilified, while radical Meitei outfits like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun continue to operate freely”.
In its memorandum to Shah, the KWOHR has demanded, among others, the immediate release of “arbitrarily detained Kuki-Zo individuals”; withdrawal of all charges and the freeing of those arrested without credible and transparent evidence; judicial inquiry into arrests and ethnic profiling; constitution of an independent judicial commission to investigate the pattern of arrests, surveillance, and intimidation directed at the Kuki-Zo community and arrest of extremist leaders and armed militias.
Sources said leaders from both the communities have been arrested this month by the CBI and NIA in cases related to the conflict between the Kuki-Zos and the Meiteis that erupted on May 3, 2023.