A Kuki-Zo village in Manipur's Ukhrul district came under full-scale armed attack in the early hours of Thursday, April 24, as the northeastern Indian state lurches deeper into overlapping violence now drawing in all three of its major communities.
The Mullam Village Authority issued an urgent statement saying armed attackers, allegedly Tangkhul militants, stormed the village at around 5:30 AM with heavy and indiscriminate firing, burning homes and leaving several injured. Two severely wounded persons were rescued. One fatality was reported but remained unverified at the time of writing. "The government must act now - any further delay will cost innocent lives," the Authority stated.
The attack did not arrive without warning. On April 19, armed militants had entered Mullam village land in broad daylight, firing blank shots at farmers, then opening live fire on youths who attempted to approach them for clarification. Another attack on farmers followed on April 21. The village appealed to authorities in nearby Toungou and Sirarikhong for intervention. Those appeals went unheeded.
Thursday's assault connects to a wider spiral set in motion on April 18, when armed militants ambushed a convoy of four civilian vehicles on NH-202 near TM Kasom village, also in Ukhrul district. Two Naga civilians were killed: SW Chinaoshang, a retired Naga Regiment serviceman from Tashar village, and Yaruingam Vashum, 42, of Kharasom village, who succumbed at Ukhrul District Hospital. Two others remain critically injured. The convoy had a security escort only up to Litan and continued without protection beyond that point.
Social media posts quickly blamed Kuki militants. The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) categorically denied any involvement, saying the incident appeared linked to "tensions among certain factional groups." The Kuki CSO Working Committee of Ukhrul went further, pointing specifically to rivalry between the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) and NSCN (Eastern Flank) as the more probable cause, given that TM Kasom lies deep within Tangkhul Naga territory. By April 21, armed confrontations between Naga and Kuki groups broke out at T Khullen village in Senapati district, closing schools, markets and public transport across five valley districts and Naga-inhabited areas of Ukhrul and Senapati.
All of this unfolds against the backdrop of a killing that has shaken the state's conscience. A rocket-propelled shell tore through a bedroom in Tronglaobi Awang Leikai village, Bishnupur district, at around 1 AM on April 7, killing five-year-old Tomthin and five-month-old Yaisana as they slept beside their mother Binita, a nurse on maternity leave from Guwahati who was visiting her in-laws. Their grandfather Oinam Babuton, 70, said the family had believed the area was safe again. "We were very wrong to trust the security forces," he said. The family has refused to claim the bodies until justice is delivered.
The state government handed the probe to the NIA. Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam announced the arrest of five suspected cadres of the United Kuki National Army. Their father, BSF jawan Oinam Mangalsana, was posted in Bihar when the attack happened and has not rejoined duty since.
The children's deaths triggered nightly protests across Imphal valley. A torch rally drew large crowds, largely women's groups, along a 7-kilometre stretch from Mayai Lambi to Keishamthong in Imphal West on April 21, defying curfew before clashing with security forces. That same day, Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, who took office on February 4 after the resignation of N. Biren Singh and a period of President's Rule, flew by helicopter to Wangjing, Thoubal district, to inaugurate a Block Development Office. Crowds blocked roads in protest. Tear gas was fired and security forces reportedly opened fire towards the crowd to disperse them. The Chief Minister said he was "surprised by the protest in Thoubal district."
In Churachandpur, five major Zomi civil society organisations called a total district shutdown on April 22, demanding justice for Late Pu Vungzagin Valte, BJP MLA of the 56-Thanlon Assembly Constituency, whose death and its circumstances remain unresolved. Tipaimukh Road and Guite Road stayed shut from 5 AM to 6 PM.
Compounding the crisis, nearly 85 CAPF companies comprising roughly 8,500 personnel had been withdrawn from Manipur in recent weeks to support West Bengal election duties. A senior state government official confirmed they will only begin returning on April 29. The KZC had warned on April 16 against replacing Central forces with State forces, citing instances of State forces being "complicit in attacks against the Kuki-Zo" since May 2023, and noting that the presence of Central forces "has significantly prevented many escalations."
More than 260 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced since the conflict between the Meitei community and Kuki-Zo tribes began on May 3, 2023. Three years on, with a village burning this morning and two children still lying unclaimed in a morgue, Manipur's crisis has drawn in every major community at once, and the forces that might contain it are still days away.
