New Delhi: A day after at least 29 houses were set ablaze in separate incidents of arson in Kuki and Tangkhul Naga villages in parts of Manipur, several houses were burnt down Thursday in a Kuki village in Noney district. This comes amid simmering tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul, triggerred on 7 February by an alleged assault that escalated into clashes. At least 25 persons from both communities have been killed since.
Around 5 am Thursday, a group of unidentified armed men burnt down at least 24 houses in Leikot area, a Kuki village in Manipur. “In an attempt to save the villagers and their houses, village volunteers formed a chain to protect their houses, but the attackers had automatic guns and mortars. After a few minutes, the volunteers could no longer fight them and had to retreat,” a Kuki leader told The Print, requesting anonymity.
“The village volunteers used their single-barrel firearms and tried to fight but found themselves ill-equipped,” he added.
Later in the day, a video surfaced of a group of men in black bearing rifles celebrating in front of houses set ablaze in Leikot area. ThePrint could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Taking cognisance of the incident, the Kuki Inpi Jiribam, Tamenglong and Noney (JTN) condemned the attack. “JTN strongly condemns in the strongest possible terms the unprovoked attack allegedly carried out by NSCN-IM militants on Leikot Village in Noney district, Manipur, at around 5 a.m. on 2 July, 2026,” it said in a statement issued Thursday.
Kuki Inpi JTN further questioned the local administration and security agencies over alleged inadequacy of security arrangements in vulnerable areas of Noney district, which it said allowed such incidents to recur.
A day earlier, at least 29 houses were set ablaze in Kuki and Tangkhul Naga villages near the India-Myanmar border, a senior Assam Rifles official confirmed to ThePrint.
According to him, unidentified persons set fire to all 15 houses in Phaimol, a Kuki village, in Kamjong district, at around 12.30 pm Wednesday. “Owing to security concerns the village had already been evacuated and its residents have been temporarily staying at Aishi village, where an Assam Rifles camp is located,” he said.
About 15 kilometres away, around 1.45 pm, armed persons set fire to houses in Shangkhalok, a Tangkhul Naga village, in Kamjong district, in a “retaliatory attack”, the official said. At least seven houses were partially burnt, he added. In a third incident, around seven houses in Huimine Thana, a Tangkhul Naga village between Shangkhalok and Phaikoh, in Kamjong district, were also set on fire, allegedly by armed Kuki men.
“There were no casualties but the houses were almost charred,” said a Manipur Police officer who did not wish to be named.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the Kuki Inpi had alleged that cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN-IM, and the Myanmar-based Shanni Nationalities Army carried out the attack on Phaimol. It further alleged that the attack was part of a “systemic campaign of violence and destruction targeting Kuki villages in the Tangkhul-dominated hill districts” in Manipur. The Kuki CSO Working Committee in Kamjong, too, accused armed Naga groups of carrying out the attack on Phaimol.
The CSO claimed that a similar attack had taken place in Kultuh village on 11 June.
“These repeated acts of arson, intimidation and violence constitute a serious violation of human rights, threaten peace and public safety and undermine the rule of law,” the committee said Wednesday. It added that such incidents have “caused fear, displacement and suffering among innocent civilians”.
However, Naga organisations rejected the allegations and accused Kuki armed groups of carrying out a “strategic” attack on a Kuki village.
According to a leader from the Eastern Command-Naga Village Guard, houses in Phaimol were set ablaze to “establish a basis for preplanned attack on two Tanghkhul Naga settlements”. The leader further alleged that about 20 armed Kuki men crossed the Namya river from Phaikoh and set fire to houses in the two villages and that 20 camps sheltering 365 Myanmar refugees at Kherongram were also destroyed.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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