Imphal/Guwahati:

An umbrella body of civil society organisations of Manipur’s valley-dominant Meitei community has requested Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to work for restoring an elected government within a month.

President’s Rule was imposed in violence-hit Manipur on February 13 following the resignation of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Representatives of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) met Governor Bhalla at the Raj Bhavan in the state capital Imphal, and submitted a 13-point memorandum that detailed steps the Governor may consider to bring peace to Manipur.

“It is evident that in the ongoing law and order crisis in Manipur, the Meetei group has no specific agenda or objective in engaging with this conflict. Rather, the crisis appears to be driven by those pursuing the demand for a separate administration,” COCOMI said in the memorandum.

COCOMI requested the Governor to work on a comprehensive initiative to identify, dismantle, and evict all illegal villages that have sprung up across the state, threatening its demographic and environmental integrity.

The civil society group said all violent activities and unauthorised movement of armed groups must be brought to a complete halt to ensure peace and stability, and requested for measures to provide security and amnesty for all affected villages and their civilian village defence forces to safeguard them from continued violence.

“The coordinator of the northeast [for] BJP has firmly assured that the territorial integrity of Manipur will be safeguarded. The coordinator must unequivocally assert that the administrative integrity of Manipur is paramount and must be safeguarded without exception, ensuring that it remains uncompromised. It is imperative that we eliminate any possibility of separate administration,” COCOMI said.

The Raj Bhavan in a statement said COCOMI convenor Kh Athouba and six others called on the Governor, and submitted a memorandum highlighting key issues pertaining to the state.

“… Governor heard their concerns and asked them to cooperate with the government in the run-up to restore harmony,” the Raj Bhavan said.

COCOMI alleged one of the root causes of the Manipur crisis is the involvement of what it called “Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist separatist groups” that have been working “in a manner similar to the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) in Myanmar, using this alignment to bargain for territorial gains within Manipur while deploying expendable Kuki militants in a proxy war and counter insurgency operations under the guise of loyalty” to India.

READ | ‘Manipur Crisis Driven By Those Pursuing Separate Administration’: Meitei Body In Memorandum To Governor

“The Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement since 2008, which has enabled militancy, must be thoroughly reviewed and dismantled. The leadership of these groups, including UPF leader Thanglianpau Guite (former MP in Myanmar) and KNO leader PS Haokip (originally from Somra Track, Myanmar), underscores their foreign origins,” COCOMI said in the memorandum.

“The state urgently requires reestablishment of law and order across both hills and plains, immediate relief and financial assistance for those affected, reconstruction of destroyed villages with adequate security measures, rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs), ensuring their safe return to their respective homes and villages, and free and secure access to healthcare, education, and transport facilities, including uninterrupted and safe movement along national highways,” COCOMI said.

Had a fruitful and meaningful discussion with the Hon’ble Governor of Manipur today. All key issues were thoroughly explained and acknowledged, paving the way for a better resolution of the state’s chronic problems, which have been exacerbated by immense cross-border pressures… pic.twitter.com/TyYRfIdwvq

— Khuraijam Athouba (@Paari_Athouba) February 17, 2025

Some 24 Kuki-Zo militant groups come under two umbrella organisations for the purpose of negotiations – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) led by the KNA, and the United People’s Front (UPF) led by the Zomi Revolutionary Army. The KNO and the UPF representing all the others have signed the SoO agreement with the Centre and the Manipur government. Under this agreement, the militants are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

The state government has been demanding to end the SoO agreement over allegations that SoO-linked militants have been taking part in the Manipur violence, as also militants from several banned Meitei groups that had nearly been eradicated from Manipur in the last 10 years, only to return from their hideouts in neighbouring Myanmar after the breakout of ethnic clashes in May 2023.

READ | End Ceasefire With All Kuki-Zo Insurgent Groups: Manipur Assembly Unanimous Resolution

The SoO agreement is reviewed by a joint monitoring group every year; its last review was in February 2024, but little is known about the current status of the agreement.

Meitei leaders have alleged the SoO groups have been working to strengthen themselves over the years by taking advantage of the ceasefire, until a time came to engineer a violent attack for a separate land. Geopolitical analysts have speculated the Kuki armed groups were used as mercenaries to fight Meitei and Naga militants operating in the India-Myanmar border – while the SoO groups’ demand for separate territory carved out of Manipur is the unintended side effect of that alleged policy.

The Kuki tribes and the Meiteis have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation.

New Delhi:

A global alliance of Manipur’s Meitei community has called for scrapping a controversial ceasefire with over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups amid the ethnic conflict between the hill-majority Kuki-Zo tribes and the valley-majority Meiteis.

The Kuki-Zo insurgent groups that signed the tripartite suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the Manipur government in 2008 have been hiding under the SoO safety net “to covertly act against India’s peace and security,” the Meitei Alliance, a group whose members are Meitei civil society organisations around the world including in the UK, the US, and Europe said in a statement on Saturday.

Every year, a joint monitoring group (JMG) reviews the SoO agreement and decides whether to end or renew it. The next review is on February 29. Broadly, the SoO agreement says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

The Manipur government in March 2023 announced it had withdrawn from the SoO agreement with the Kuki National Army (KNA), and the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA). However, only the JMG can decide on such matters, which indicates the state government’s move was only a request to the JMG, sources said.

The over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under two umbrella groups – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and the United People’s Front (UPF). These two representing the others have signed the SoO agreement.

“Suspension of operations with any armed group is, technically speaking, to restore law and order and to ensure security in the country. But when it is used to mask privatisation of violence, it poses a threat to the security of the state as well as life and property of citizens,” Bimol Akoijam, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for the Study of Social Systems, said in a statement today.

The Meitei Alliance also published a booklet detailing what it claimed were instances of SoO agreement ground rules violations by Kuki-Zo insurgents.

“Kuki-Zo armed groups have always kept their larger long-term political goal of carving out a sovereign territory called Zale’n-gam. They merely take advantage of SoO to systematically build up their strength to achieve prioritised goals achievable within the Constitution of India,” the Meitei Alliance said in the booklet titled ‘Ghost of Peace: Why Not Abrogate SoO Agreements With Kuki Armed Groups to Prevent Destabilisation of India?’

“In the long run, Kuki armed groups in the Indo-Myanmar borderland may shift allegiance and become the proxy of an entirely different, globally powerful expansionist force to become a perennial threat to India’s internal security and more extensive geostrategic interests,” the Meitei Alliance said, days after it submitted a memorandum to Home Minister Amit Shah with a request to scrap the SoO agreement.

Mr Akoijam, who recently published a report on the media’s shortcomings on reporting the Manipur issue, called for disarming all armed groups in order to end the “privatisation of violence” and ensure “only the State has monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force”.

“I have indicated before there is something that has already been discussed among scholars and activists that the privatisation of violence is unacceptable. Only the State must have the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. That is what the State is. Now, if you privatise it (violence), that is not done… Has SoO become something like a mask to hide the truth? That is something people have to ask,” Mr Akoijam told reporters in Delhi on Saturday.

‘Amend, Review SoO Agreement, Not Scrap It’: Retired Army Officer

Major Md Ali Shah (retired), who was a part of the panel discussion on the SoO agreement in Delhi on Saturday, recommended not to put pressure on the Centre and the state government to scrap the agreement, and instead push for reviewing it and taking corrective actions to ensure the ground rules are followed by the insurgent groups.

“I have a slightly different point of view. I am sure you have the maturity to understand it… The moment any agreement is retracted, it won’t go down well. I personally don’t stand for termination of SoO. There can be a review, no doubt. There can be amendments, no doubt. But terminating the agreement won’t be the solution to the problem,” Major Shah told reporters.

Another former army officer, Lieutenant General Konsam Himalay Singh (retired), also pointed at the scope of improvement of the SoO agreement. “… Simply following the ground rules would have prevented the worsening of the present situation. The rules were violated in many ways, though only the Manipur government’s records can confirm this. Even now, there is scope for improvement, like biometric identification of the inmates, reducing the number of camps, and strict enforcement of ground rules,” Lt General Singh said in a statement.

“But violence has spread much further. Now immediate and forceful actions to contain it are necessary, including all illegal armed groups,” said Lt General Singh, the first officer from the northeast to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army, and who was honoured with the Yudh Seva Medal after the Kargil War in 1999, when he commanded the 27th Battalion, Rajput Regiment, in the high-altitude battlefield Siachen.

Allegations Against Meitei Insurgents Who Signed Peace Deal

The ethnic violence in Manipur over disagreements on land, resources, political representation, and affirmative action policies has dragged on for nine months now.

Both sides accuse each other of atrocities. The Kuki-Zo tribes say their “village defence volunteers” have been repelling attacks by armed groups from the valley, who come to the hills across the “buffer zone” with obvious intentions. Both call themselves “village defence volunteers”, a definition of the belligerents in Manipur that has become the most controversial since nothing stops these “volunteers” from killing people under the insurance provided by “in self-defence”.

However, members of Manipur’s oldest valley-based armed group UNLF, which signed a tripartite peace agreement with the centre and the state government in November 2023 – the first Meitei insurgent group to do so – are allegedly engaged in violent activities against both the security forces and the public, news agency PTI reported on February 18.

The recent sightings of insurgents of the Kh Pambei faction of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) in Manipur’s Moirangpurel, Tumukhong, and Itham have raised concerns, with reports indicating they were carrying out reconnaissance to set up camps in these areas, PTI reported.

The gates of houses of Kuki-Zo tribes in parts of Imphal valley including the Games Village in the Langol foothills have the acronym ‘UNLF’ written on them, sources who have been to the area said, requesting anonymity.

While the Kuki-Zo tribes accuse the Meiteis of razing their vacant buildings and occupying them in and around Imphal valley, the Meiteis have pointed at entire localities of their community flattened and erased in the hill district Churachandpur.

A similarity between the “village defence volunteers” of both sides is that they appear to be well-armed and well-equipped with modern battle gear. The security forces have frequently recovered Russian-origin AK and US-origin M series assault rifles, and gun models commonly used by both the junta’s army and pro-democracy insurgents in neighbouring Myanmar.

Over 180 have died in the violence, and thousands have been internally displaced.