The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), a leading organisation representing Kuki-Zo communities, on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Union home minister Amit Shah, urging the Centre to expedite talks with Kuki-Zo representatives — KNO and UPF — “for an early, just, and constitutional political solution”.
The memorandum was submitted after the KZC organised a mass rally in three Kuki-Zo-majority districts of strife-hit Manipur — Churachandpur, Chandel and Tengnoupal — on the same day representatives of the KNO and the UPF, two platforms of Kuki-Zo militant groups under suspension of operations, were reportedly scheduled to hold talks with MHA officials. Several rounds of talks have been held earlier.
The rally was not held in Kangpokpi and Pherzawl, the two other Kuki-Zo-majority districts, an ITLF member said.
The memorandum pressed for an “immediate” political solution in the form of a separate administration — an Union Territory (UT) with legislature — for the Kuki-Zo people, who it said have “endured immense suffering arising from the ethnic conflict with the Meitei community”. It claimed “more than 250 innocent Kuki-Zo lives have been lost… more than 40,000 people forcibly displaced from their homes and properties” since violence erupted on May 3, 2023.
“The Kuki-Zo population has been forcibly driven out of the Imphal Valley, resulting in a complete physical, administrative, and psychological separation between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei peoples,” the memorandum said, alleging that elements of the state government machinery were complicit in, or failed to prevent, the violence. “Under such circumstances, there exists no scope whatsoever for the Kuki-Zo people to continue under the same administration,” it added.
Accordingly, the Kuki-Zo people have “formally place before the government of India our legitimate and constitutional demand for a separate administration in the form of a Union Territory with legislature under article 239A of the Indian Constitution”. While political talks with the KNO–UPF have commenced, the memorandum said there had been “no visible or tangible progress”, prolonging uncertainty and hardship.
Meitei organisations oppose any division of the state and blame Kuki-Zo rebel groups for “fanning” the unrest.
The KZC also flagged concerns over the “highly sensitive and dangerous issue of resettling Meitei IDPs in buffer zone areas”, warning that such moves could reignite ethnic violence. It raised allegations of “persistent” encroachment due to overlapping district and police jurisdictions in areas of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, and urged immediate correction.