New Delhi: Several Naga houses were set ablaze Tuesday morning in Pipuram Naga and Tapon Namsan villages in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, less than 24 hours after three Kukis were killed in an ‘armed militant attack’ in the same Waichong sub-division. Both incidents were reported from villages along the Imphal-Tamenglong (IT) road.
Superintendent of Police (Kangpokpi) Abhinav told ThePrint that the attack on 1 September was carried out by “armed Kuki militants”. Around 4 AM, several houses in the Tapon Namsan and Pipuram Naga villages were set ablaze and “indiscriminate” firing was reported, said SP Avinash, adding that there were no casualties.
Village sources told ThePrint that the Tapon Namsan village chief was injured in the firing.
The Makui Village Authority has issued a statement accusing Kuki militants of carrying out the attack. “At around 4:00 AM, armed Kuki militants attacked Tapon Namsam Pipuram Naga village, fired indiscriminately, then set ablaze and burnt down households, destroying all properties, food grains and belongings. After burning Pipuram, the same militants attacked main Makui Naga village. The militants continued firing towards the main village, attempting to burn houses and cause large-scale casualties,” it read.
Further, the Village Authority alleged that the attack Tuesday was not an isolated one. “On 27th August, 2026, four innocent villagers of Makui were brutally killed in a pre-planned ambush by Kuki militants between Makui Ashang village and Thanamba village. And today again, within a few days, they have attacked Pipuram and main Makui Village,” it said.
Terming the attacks as a way of “grabbing” their ancestral land, the Makui Village Authority said it considers these “a direct attempt to wipe out Liangmai Nagas from the IT Road area”.
The spate of attacks on both Kuki and Naga villages has led to political turmoil in Manipur, with Deputy CM Losii Dikho and eight other Naga MLAs writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking action against fellow Deputy CM Nemcha Kipgen who hails from the Kuki community. Their letter referred to the May abduction and killing of six Naga civilians, whose bodies were recovered in June from outside the Leilon Vaiphei village.
Another four Naga civilians, including a school principal, were killed by armed assailants on the IT road in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on 27 August, according to the police.
On Monday, four days after that attack, at least three Kuki civilians were killed and four others injured when unidentified persons opened fire along the same stretch.
The Naga MLAs have demanded the immediate arrests of Kuki-Zo leaders—who they said publicly claimed responsibility for the “killing and dismemberment of six innocent Naga citizens”—as well as of deputy CM Nemcha Kipgen’s husband Thangboi Kipgen, of the Kuki National Front-Presidential (KNF-P), whose cadres, they alleged, perpetrated the attack.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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