A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has accepted evidence submitted by the NIA of a suspected Kuki militant commander saying he and his men attacked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and set fire to homes in Manipur.

The NIA told the court that a viral video on a YouTube channel shows a man “suspected to be a Kuki militant called ‘Tiger’, a commander of the Kuki National Front-P (KNF-P), claiming he and his men attacked CRPF and burnt down houses on November 11.”

The NIA investigating a suspected Kuki militant of the KNF-P also raises questions over possible violation of the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement. 

Three big escalations happened in ethnic violence-hit Manipur on November 11 – first, six of a family from the Meitei community were kidnapped and killed in Jiribam district by suspects who the Manipur government in a cabinet statement called “Kuki militants”; second, 10 others – also identified as “Kuki militants” by the state government – were shot dead in an encounter with the Central Reserve Police Force in the same district, and third, firing from the hills towards Imphal West District’s Kangchup and Koutruk just hours after the Jiribam encounter left two people injured.

The court in its order accepting the NIA evidence said the anti-terror agency downloaded the viral video of the suspected Kuki militant into a pen drive in the presence of two witnesses.

The NIA submitted the pen drive to the court in a sealed envelope under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that deals with electronic evidence.

The court said the pen drive has been returned to the NIA for further investigation.

About KNF-P

The ‘P’ in KNF-P means “president”; it is used to indicate KNF-P is the original KNF, hence the letter “president”, the supreme. The KNF was founded in 1987. In 1994, KNF split into two factions i.e. KNF-MC led by SK Kipgen, and the original became KNF-P led by ST Thangboi Kipgen.

So, KNF is the KNF-P; the rest are its factions.

The KNF is a signatory to the controversial suspension of operations (SoO) agreement signed between nearly two dozen Kuki militant groups and the state and the centre. Under SoO, the militants are to stay at designated camps and their weapons kept in locked, monitored storage.

The Manipur government has been asking the joint monitoring group, which reviews the SoO agreement every year, to scrap it for good, over allegations that the SoO groups have been majorly involved in the Manipur violence from the beginning. The SoO agreement lapsed in February this year.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

Meitei leaders have alleged the SoO groups have been working to strengthen themselves over the years by taking advantage of the ceasefire, until a time came to engineer a violent attack for a separate land. Geopolitical analysts have speculated the Kuki armed groups were used as mercenaries to fight Meitei and Naga militants operating in the India-Myanmar border.

Kuki-Zo civil society groups such as the ITLF and the CoTU, and their 10 MLAs have joined the call for a separate administration carved out of Manipur, a demand also made by the nearly two dozen militant groups that have signed the SoO agreement.

This single demand has brought the Kuki militant groups, the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs, and the civil society groups on the same page.

The security forces have been trying to dismantle bunkers in the hills surrounding Imphal valley after several incidents of firing for the last few days.

Kuki protesters tried to stop the security forces from destroying the bunkers. Some protesters were injured when the security forces tried to disperse them.