Kuki militant group leader’s house burnt down in Manipur; no casualties

Miscreants burnt down the house of a senior leader of a Kuki militant group in Churachandpur district of Manipur on Monday night, a spokesperson of the tribal body Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) said on Tuesday.

No one was injured in the attack which gutted a house in Songpi, nearly 5km from the Churachandpur town. A car parked outside the house was also completely damaged.

Manipur has been roiled by ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities since May 3, which has claimed at least 122 lives, injured over 300 and displaced around 50,000. Thousands of houses and religious places have also been burned.

“Unknown miscreants burned down the house of Seilen Haokip, Kuki National Organisation (KNO) spokesperson last night. This comes after KNO/United Peoples Front (UPF) lifted the blockade of National Highway-2,” ITLF spokesperson Ginza Vualzong said.

KNO and UPF issued a joint statement on Sunday to announce the end of the two-month-long blockade of a stretch of NH-2 in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district following a fresh appeal by Union home minister Amit Shah.

Seilen Haokip said his house was at an isolated location about 5km out of town. “Had it been in town, it (fire) could have spread. we have to contain the situation from escalation,” Haokip said.

Kuki militant groups signed a suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the state government in August 2008. The agreement was signed with 25 Kuki militant groups-(17 of them are under the umbrella group KNO and another 8 under the United Peoples Front (UPF).

The cadres of these groups were required to be confined to designated camps and their arms were kept locked.

There have been allegations by the state government from the start of ethnic clashes that militants belonging to the SoO groups could be involved in spreading violence. Inspection of designated camps of the Kuki groups under SoO by the military in June revealed that almost all arms were intact.

On the other hand, Kuki groups have accused two radical Meitei groups, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun of targeting Kukis.