The reports coming from the hills of Manipur since March 2026 are not just disturbing, they are heartbreaking and shameful for a democratic country like India. According to ground reports, cadres of Naga militant groups NSCN-IM and ZUF-K have killed 26 Kukthe dead are 8 Kuki women, including 2 pregnant women, and 18 men, including 3 pastors. These were not combatants. They were defenseless villagers, mothers, church leaders and farmers who were butchered inside their own villages. The so-called Naga Army claims to fight for a political cause, but it has acted like gangsters carrying out cold-blooded executions of innocent civilians.
NSCN-IM Butchered 26 Kuki Civilians in 2026 Alone Under the Cover of Ceasefire Agreement
The pattern of killings is systematic. Since March 2026, armed men have entered Kuki villages, separated the men, targeted women, burnt houses and fled under the cover of the ceasefire agreement. The attacks are allegedly carried out by Tangkhul-dominated units of NSCN-IM using the Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Kamjong corridor as their base. For Kuki villagers in these districts, life has become a daily nightmare. They cannot go to their fields, sell their produce or send their children to school without fear of being attacked on National Highway-202.
What is most shocking is the silence of the Government of India. Under the ceasefire agreement signed in 1997, NSCN-IM cadres are allowed to retain arms, maintain camps and move with impunity. While the ceasefire was meant to bring peace, on the ground it has become a shield for crimes against Kuki civilians. A Kuki youth with a licensed gun is arrested under UAPA, but NSCN-IM cadres roaming with automatic rifles and killing 26 civilians is dismissed as a law and order issue. This double standard has destroyed the faith of Kuki people in the justice system.
Targeting Women and Pastors – ISIS-Style Brutality Since 1990 by NSCN-IM
The killing of 8 Kuki women, including 2 pregnant women, deserves the strongest condemnation. Kuki women have been subjected to rape, naked parades, burning alive, torture and beheading. Even in war, women and pregnant mothers are protected under international humanitarian law. The fact that they were deliberately targeted shows the inhuman nature of the perpetrators. The three pastors among the dead were peace-builders who preached forgiveness and non-violence. This is identical to what Christians in the Middle East faced from ISIS – rape of women, public humiliation, burning alive, beheading, destruction of churches and hunting of women and children. Today, Kuki Christians in India are facing the same ISIS-like terror.
Brutal Atrocities by Meitei Community on Kukis Since May 2023
The violence unleashed by Meitei groups since May 3, 2023 is a continuation of ethnic cleansing. Since then, more than 250 Kuki civilians have been killed, more than 7,000 Kuki houses have been burnt, and over 360 Kuki churches have been destroyed by Meitei mobs allegedly supported by the state machinery. Kuki villages have been completely wiped out from Imphal Valley and thousands of families have been displaced. Kuki women were paraded naked, assaulted in broad daylight and burnt alive. Militias like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun looted state armouries and used those weapons to attack Kuki villages in the foothills. This was not a communal clash. It was a pre-planned pogrom against Kuki Christians. Till today, not a single perpetrator has been punished.
Selective Justice – Government of India, NHRC, NCW and Minorities Commission Silent
The Government of India must answer whose human rights it is protecting. The NHRC, National Commission for Women and National Commission for Minorities have remained silent while Kuki women were raped, paraded naked and burnt alive. If two pregnant women from any other community had been beheaded, there would have been national outrage and immediate action. In the case of Kuki women, there is not even a proper FIR. Bodies are not taken for post-mortem and families are threatened not to speak. This selective justice is the biggest violation of the Constitution.
File Photo: The 8 Kuki women killed by NSCN-IM & ZUF-K terrorists in 2026 alone. According to community records, more than 1,100 Kukis have been killed by NSCN-IM & ZUF since 1990. No FIR, no arrest till today.
The ceasefire agreement must be reviewed and revoked if it is being used to kill civilians. Peace cannot be built on the bodies of Kuki women and pastors. The Government cannot hold political talks with a group that is killing its own citizens. NSCN-IM must stop killing Kukis and surrender its illegal arms. Central forces must be deployed in all Kuki villages in Kamjong and Ukhrul, and an independent judicial inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge must be ordered to investigate the killing of 26 Kukis. The culprits must be arrested under UAPA and punished under law.
No FIR, No Arrest, No Justice – Where Are UN, UNHRC and International Human Rights Groups?
Till today, there has been no justice and no action from the Government of India, the international community or international human rights groups. The United Nations, UNHRC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which speak loudly for Christians in the Middle East, have maintained complete silence on the persecution of Kuki Christians in India. No fact-finding team has been sent, no statement has been issued and no pressure has been put on New Delhi to protect Kuki Christians. The Government of India has not arrested a single NSCN-IM cadre for killing 26 civilians. This proves that Kuki Christian lives do not matter to New Delhi or to the international human rights industry. If justice is not delivered now, history will record that the world watched silently while Kuki Christians were exterminated like Christians in Iraq and Syria.
The Kuki community is peace-loving but resilient. We do not seek revenge, we seek justice. We want the world to know that 26 Kuki civilians have been killed since March 2026, including 8 women and 3 pastors, and no one has been arrested. If India and the international community truly believe in democracy and human rights, they cannot remain mute spectators to this systematic extermination.
