CHURACHANDPUR/IMPHAL, June 18: Thousands of women from the Kuki Zo community on Wednesday staged a rally in Manipur’s Churachandpur to protest the “arbitrary arrest” of persons belonging to their community allegedly by security agencies.
The protest, organised by the Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR), began at 11 am from Koite Ground and concluded at Peace Ground in Tuibuong.
Participants held placards and raised slogans such as “Respect Human Rights,” “We Don’t Want Selective Justice,” “Justice for the Kuki Zo Community,” and “Stop Arbitrary Arrests.”
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The KWOHR later submitted a memorandum addressed to the home minister through the district magistrate, claiming two more Kukis have been arrested and termed it as unjust.
The organisation has been demanding the immediate release of the “arbitrarily arrested” Kuki Zo persons, judicial inquiry into the arrests and alleged ethnic profiling, action against armed militias, seizure of looted arms, and investigation into possible collusion with state actors.
In May and early June, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested three insurgents in a case related to a deadly attack on security forces that killed two police commandos and injured several others last year.
The three men, along with their associates, planned, conspired and executed the attack on an Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) post and security forces at Moreh in Tengnoupal district on January 17, 2024, they said.
Among the arrested was Thangminlen Mate, a resident of Tengnoupal district and member of the Kuki Inpi Tengnoupal (KIT).
The other accused, Kamginthang Gangte, a member of the Kuki National Army (KNA), and Hentinthang Kipgen alias Thangneo Kipgen, associated with the village volunteers’ group in Churachandpur district, were arrested in Imphal on June 6. (PTI)
