The Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the apex body representing Kuki tribes, has alleged that Teikhang and Lenglong villages in Manipur’s Noney district were attacked on Wednesday afternoon, accusing Tangkhul-led factions of the NSCN (IM) and the ZUF-K of carrying out arson and widespread destruction. KIM said the assault took place at around 2 pm and called it a “catastrophic escalation” of the state’s ethnic conflict.
In a statement, KIM’s Information and Publicity Secretary Kaybie Chongloi said the organisation has sought immediate intervention from the Central Government and reiterated its long-standing demand for a separate Union Territory with a Legislature for the Kuki-Zo community.
KIM alleged the attack formed part of a broader campaign to strategically displace Kuki-Zo communities and to further the agenda of “Greater Nagalim” through violent land grabs and demographic change in areas inhabited by Kuki-Zo people. The group accused the assailants of deliberately targeting homes and property to force population shifts.
The tribal body said the destruction of the two villages exposed a “complete failure” by the state to protect its citizens, arguing that repeated attacks on frontier Kuki-Zo villages reveal serious security lapses and have deepened Manipur’s internal security crisis. “The continued, systemic failure of the government to shield our frontier villages from heavily armed terrorist operations has crossed the line from institutional ineptitude into a grave internal security crisis,” the statement said.
Reiterating its political demand, KIM argued that recurring violence shows the Kuki-Zo people can no longer safely coexist under the current administrative arrangements in Manipur and described the creation of a Union Territory with a Legislature as an “existential imperative” for their security, dignity and survival.
KIM urged the Central Government to launch what it called an immediate counter-terrorism offensive against NSCN (IM) and its alleged proxy groups, formally acknowledge what it termed the failure of the existing state structure, and expedite the constitutional process to create a Union Territory with Legislature.
Original Source: https://www.indiatodayne.in/manipur/story/kuki-inpi-demands-separate-union-territory-after-alleged-attack-on-two-manipur-villages-1425236-2026-07-16?utm_source=rssfeed
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Publish Date: 2026-07-16 14:10:00
