Guwahati/New Delhi:
A Kuki organisation has extended a shutdown in all areas in Manipur where the Kuki tribes are settled, days after protesters tried to stop central security forces from dismantling bunkers in the hills. Several protesters were injured.
The Kuki-Zo Council said the economic blockade – stopping essential transport on major roads and National Highways – has been extended till 2 am on Saturday.
The Kuki group’s announcement came on a day former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ajay Kumar Bhalla took charge as Manipur’s new Governor.
The Manipur government said on December 20 there is no organisation called “Kuki-Zo Council”. This group had objected to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh passing through Kangpokpi district in order to reach Senapati district, where Mr Singh participated in a local festival.
The Kuki body said the shutdown is a protest against “blatant disregard for tribal rights and dignity.”
The Kuki-Zo Council said it also endorsed the economic blockade and protests called by the Kangpokpi district-based Kuki civil group Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU).
They have been demanding the Centre withdraw its forces from a village in Kangpokpi’s Uyok Ching area. Several women from the Kuki tribes were injured on December 31 during action by the security forces to disperse them while they were protesting against a move to dismantle bunkers on the hills.
Mr Bhalla, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, served as the Union Home Secretary from August 2019 to August 2024. He has extensive experience in dealing with crisis situations in the northeast region.
He was the Union Home Secretary when ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, broke out in May 2023.
Over 250 have been killed and more than 60,000 have been internally displaced in the ethnic conflict.
