Three persons were killed and several others were injured in Manipur’s Ukhrul district on Friday after violence broke out between Kuki and Naga communities, The Hindu reported.
Two of those killed were Kukis, while the third was a Tangkhul Naga. The Tangkhuls are the dominant community in the district.
The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights alleged that around 5.30 am on Friday, armed Tangkhul Naga men attacked Kuki villages Mullam and Shongphal when the residents were asleep in their homes, according to The Hindu. The assailants fatally shot two “village volunteers”, injured several others, including women and children and burned over a dozen homes, the organisation alleged.
The term “village volunteers” has been used for armed civilians guarding villages since ethnic clashes broke out in the state in May 2023.
The two persons killed, L Sitlhou and P Haolai, were found in camouflage outfits with bullet wounds, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.
The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights said that the villagers exercised “their lawful right to self-defence with licenced hunting arms”, repulsed the attack, and “neutralised” one of the alleged assailants, The Hindu reported.
However, the central command of the Naga Village Guard claimed that armed Kuki extremists opened fire at its members on patrol duty between Sirakhong and Sinakeithei villages. It said that Naga villagers had been patrolling the area because of “repeated attacks on Sinakeithei village and reports of constant tactical movement in the peripheries by the Kuki armed cadres under the Suspension of Operations [SoO] agreement”, according to The Hindu.
The Suspension of Operations agreement was signed between the Centre, the Manipur government and two conglomerates of Kuki militant outfits – the Kuki National Organisation and United Peoples Front – in 2008.
The Naga Village Guard on Friday identified the third person killed as Horshokmi Jamang, and claimed that he was also a “village volunteer”.
Tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul erupted on February 7, when an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes.
The incident, in which a Tangkhul Naga man was injured following an altercation, triggered days of arson and firing in Litan and nearby villages. Subsequent efforts by civil society groups from both communities to resolve the dispute failed and intermittent violence continued.
This violence signalled a shift in clashes in Manipur from the Meitei-dominated plains to the hills.
Ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023, leaving at least 260 persons dead and more than 59,000 persons displaced . There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.
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