Nagas petition Modi for political solution to Manipur crisis

Nagas take out a rally in Manipur’s Kamjong district, demanding a permanent political solution to the State’s problems. Photo: Special Arrangement

Nagas took out rallies in conflict-scarred Manipur’s Kamjong and Ukhrul districts on Thursday (November 5, 2026), urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help secure a permanent political solution that will end the violence wracking the State.

The protesters demanded that the Centre recognise the Manipur crisis as a historical problem rooted in “illegal” Kuki immigration, as well as disparity between the tribal hills and the largely non-tribal Imphal Valley that is the State’s power centre.

Four Tangkhul Naga organisations, under the banner of the United Naga Council, Manipur’s apex Naga body, organised the simultaneous rallies in the two Naga-majority districts. In a joint memorandum, they sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to end the crisis.

The organisations said Manipur’s conflict started between the Kukis and Meiteis in May 2023 and escalated into a Kuki-Naga clash after a Naga civilian was assaulted in Ukhrul district in February this year. They alleged that Kuki extremists subsequently opened a new front in the violence with a series of killings, abductions and arson attacks on Naga civilians in the hills.

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“Till date, more than 32 Naga civilians have been killed. The most gruesome of all being the recovery of the mutilated bodies of six abducted Liangmai Nagas on 10th June, 2026... The latest being the brutal murder of Ajinbou Ringkangmai on 10th October, 2026. He was beheaded,” the memorandum read.

Lamenting the government’s failure to catch the main culprits, the Tangkhul organisations said conflict was not new to Manipur due to “historical demographic distortions caused by skewed Kuki refugee/immigration policy and the influx of illegal Kuki immigrants from Burma”.

“From barely 73 villages as per the 1,881 census, the number of Kuki villages within the State of Manipur has mushroomed into as many as 1,878. Swathes of tribal land and tracts of village hills and mountains are being encroached upon by the Kuki militants,” the organisations wrote, alleging that these were being used as poppy plantations by cartels.

The Naga groups urged the Centre to stop the “militarisation” of Naga areas and withdraw the paramilitary Assam Rifles from the region. They also called for the identification of all Kuki refugees and illegal immigrants for repatriation and deportation to their countries of origin in a time-bound manner.

The organisations also petitioned the Centre not to grant the Kukis a separate homeland, administrative arrangement or territorial council. They said such a concession would affect the integrity of the Naga ancestral territories.

In addition, they asked the Centre to revoke the Suspension of Operations agreement signed with more than 20 Kuki extremist groups, to disarm and arrest all their members, and relocate all internally displaced persons away from Naga-inhabited areas.

Published - November 05, 2026 08:14 pm IST