Imphal: A Kuki-Zo women's forum demanded on Wednesday that President's Rule be reimposed in Manipur, calling the prolonged crisis a political problem that more security forces cannot solve.
At a press conference in New Delhi, the Kuki-Zo Women's Forum also renewed its demand for a separate administration — a Union Territory with a legislature — for the community. "Our political demand is not merely a political demand. It is a question of our survival. We want to survive," Kuki-Zo Council spokesperson Ginza Vualzong said.
Vualzong said the community had lost 32 members since the present state government took office, and claimed that no Kuki-Zo civilian died in violence during the earlier spell of President's Rule. The forum sought a probe into alleged attacks attributed to the NSCN-IM, action on ceasefire violations, ex-gratia for the families of the dead, and an end to what it called selective NIA operations.
The demand came as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge attacked the BJP over the violence. In a post on X on Wednesday, he said Manipur was "bleeding again", cited more than 300 deaths and 24,530 people living in relief camps since May 2023, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to answer for what he called a failure of governance.
The immediate trigger is the killing of three civilians — Arubam Ronil, Lairenlkpam Inaobi and Kshetrimayum Sushil — at the Khongban Sunurok hill range on October 19. A Joint Action Committee formed over the killings has called a statewide sit-in on Thursday, asking schools and colleges to suspend work and people to join the protest.
On Monday, police fired tear gas to disperse relatives of the victims protesting outside Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh's residence.