A 19-member delegation comprising representatives from three prominent Meitei organisations on Monday held a meeting with senior officials of the Union home ministry in Delhi and urged the Centre to initiate time-bound steps towards establishing peace in Manipur.

The officials declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting.

Sources said the Meitei organisations’ demands included the preservation of Manipur’s territorial integrity, reopening of blocked national highways for free movement, resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced people and security for farmers living and working on the periphery of the Imphal Valley.

“The three organisations urged the Centre to take concrete and time-bound steps to resolve the ongoing crises in Manipur,” said a source.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, All Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation and the Federation of Civil Society Organisations were part of the delegation.

Manipur, which has been witnessing periodic ethnic violence since May 2023 between the majority Meitei and tribal Kuki communities, accounted for 77 per cent of the total violence in the entire northeastern region in 2023, according to the latest annual report of the home ministry.

At least 250 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced in the 25-month-long violence.

The conflict has caused the tribal Kuki-Zo people to leave the Meitei-majority valley, and the Meiteis to stay away from the tribal-dominated hill districts, resulting in a complete demarcation of the Kuki-Zo and Meitei populations.

Farmers with agricultural land in the peripheral regions of the Imphal Valley, bordering the Kuki-inhabited hills, have frequently come under attack during the ongoing ethnic conflict.

Early June, Kuki-Zo insurgent groups in Manipur iterated their demand for Union Territory status with a special legislature and a “revision in the ground rules” of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact during talks with the Centre after a gap of two years. Government sources had then said the talks were “positive” but “inconclusive”.

On June 10, the ministry had formal talks in Delhi with the Kuki-Zo militant groups for the first time since the unrest began in May 2023. During the meeting, both sides discussed the way forward for a political solution in the state, including the opening of highways to ensure free movement of people and the surrender of weapons looted after May 2023.