The Kuki-zo Council questioned the sequence of events preceding the incident, including visits by COCOMI leaders and a public meeting by Arambai Tenggol followed by firing later that night after the return of IDPs to Torbung village.
BY PC Bureau
December 17, 2025: The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) on Tuesday voiced strong objections to the resettlement of Meitei internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Manipur’s Torbung buffer zone, warning that the move could reignite violence in one of the most sensitive flashpoints of the 2023 ethnic conflict.
In a press release issued on December 17, the KZC said the incident reported in the Torbung buffer zone was a matter of “grave concern,” recalling that the violence of May 3, 2023, had originated in Torbung, Churachandpur. The council noted that the area witnessed the first killing of the conflict, when Pastor Sekhhohao Kipgen was “brutally beaten to death in broad daylight,” and that “in the first two days alone, 45 Kuki-Zo lives were lost.”
Against this backdrop, the council sharply criticised the decision of the Deputy Commissioner of Bishnupur to flag off the resettlement of Meitei IDPs in the buffer zone, calling it “deeply irresponsible and provocative.” The statement said, “A sensitive administration would have avoided resettlement in such a volatile area,” adding that allowing Meitei IDPs to resettle there “amounts to inviting renewed conflict.”
The KZC release signed by Ginza Vualzong, Secretary (Information and Publicity), also pointed to earlier attempts by Meitei IDPs to breach the Torbung buffer zone, including during the Sangai Festival, which it said “further point to a pattern of provocation.” It demanded that the district administration roll back the move, stating that the Deputy Commissioner “must take responsibility and roll back the resettlement in this volatile area to avoid further escalation.”
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Raising questions over the events preceding the latest incident, the council said the visit by COCOMI leaders to Meitei IDPs at Torbung Mamang Leikai, followed by a public meeting organised by Arambai Tenggol and firing later that night, “raises serious questions of intent and responsibility.”
The KZC maintained that the Kuki-Zo community has shown restraint throughout the crisis. “The Kuki-Zo people have consistently exercised restraint and respected buffer-zone arrangements to prevent further bloodshed,” the statement said, while rejecting “any attempt to blame the Kuki-Zo for tensions arising from unilateral administrative actions and violations of buffer-zone protocols.”
Accusing Meitei groups of acting provocatively during the Christmas season, the council alleged that such actions “reflect a calculated effort to disrupt the peaceful spirit of the Kuki-Zo people.”
Reiterating its political position, the KZC said the Manipur crisis “is not a law-and-order issue but a political one rooted in ethnic cleansing,” asserting that peace would come “only through a political solution.” It urged the Government of India to recognise what it described as the effective separation of the Kuki-Zo people from Manipur and to grant them “a separate administrative arrangement that they rightfully deserve.”
