The press statement issued by the United Naga Council on August 27, 2026, regarding the IT Road incident is not just misleading, it is profoundly odd and shameful. It raises serious questions about the moral compass and credibility of an organization that claims to be the apex body of all Nagas.
In its lengthy statement, the UNC described the four persons killed on August 27 near Makui Ashang and Makui Thanamba along the IT Road in Kangpokpi district as “innocent Liangmai civilians.” It gave them respectable civilian identities – a Village Authority Chairman, a School Principal, and Youth Club executives. It projected them as unarmed village elders and demanded justice with a one-day Genna bandh across all Naga-inhabited areas on August 28, along with an SIT headed by the CBI and action against Kuki SoO groups.
This narrative has been quickly accepted without question in some quarters, especially by those who do not know the ground reality of IT Road. But for the people who actually live along the IT Road, for the Kuki farmers of Kangpokpi, Senapati, Kamjong, Tamenglong and Ukhrul, this civilian narrative is a complete lie. They know the truth, and the truth is starkly different.
These four individuals were not innocent civilians at all. They were armed cadres of NSCN-IM and ZUF-K who have been operating along the IT Road for months. They are not farmers or teachers; they are the attackers of Kuki farmers. According to testimonies from local villagers, these same groups have been responsible for attacking and killing more than 14 Kuki civilians since March 2026, including three innocent pastors and a couple of pregnant women. They have established illegal checkpoints, patrol the jungle with sophisticated assault rifles, and have turned the IT Road into a zone of fear for Kuki villagers.
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For months, the life of a Kuki farmer in this belt has become a daily struggle for survival. Farmers from villages like Makui, L. Phaijang and others cannot go to their own paddy fields, which are their only source of livelihood. When they try to go, they are stopped at gunpoint, beaten, verbally abused, their crops deliberately destroyed, and forced to pay illegal taxes. Their movement on the IT Road, which is the lifeline connecting their villages, is controlled and regulated by these armed Naga groups. The farmers have cried for help and reported to the authorities, but their suffering has remained invisible.
And during all these months of systematic harassment, intimidation and killing of Kuki farmers and civilians, where was the United Naga Council? The UNC, which today claims to be deeply hurt by the loss of four lives, did not issue a single line condemning the attacks on Kuki farmers. It did not appeal for peace. It did not demand an SIT for the killing of 14 Kuki civilians, including pastors and pregnant women. It did not call a Genna for them. Its silence was absolute and deliberate. For the UNC, it seems, the human rights of Kuki farmers do not exist.
But when four of those attackers were killed on the morning of August 27 at around 8:30 AM by Kuki village volunteers who were defending their farmlands from yet another attack, the UNC suddenly woke up and became the champion of human rights. It issued a strong condemnation, used words like “cold-blooded murder,” demanded immediate action, and called for a total shutdown. This selective outrage, this selective grief, is what makes the entire condemnation not only odd but shameful.
A simple, logical question is enough to expose the lie behind the civilian tag. What were a Village Authority Chairman, a School Principal and Youth Club executives doing together in a dense jungle confrontation zone at 8:30 in the morning carrying sophisticated assault rifles and ammunition? Since when do school principals and village chairmen roam in the jungle in combat formation to attack paddy fields? The answer is simple: they don’t. Civilians do not carry AK-series rifles to harvest paddy. Armed cadres do. Villagers on the ground have confirmed that these men were in full combat gear and were actively firing upon Kuki farmers when the village volunteers retaliated in self-defence.
What the UNC is doing now is a well-known tactic in this conflict – giving civilian clothes to militants after their death. When alive, they are active cadres who extort and attack; when killed, they are overnight transformed into innocent village elders to gain public sympathy and ethnic support.
The second and more dangerous lie in the UNC statement is the direct allegation that the retaliation was carried out under the command of Jangboi Kipgen, Home Secretary, KNF/UPF, and by SoO groups KNF(P), KNF and KRA. This allegation is completely baseless, fabricated without any evidence, inquiry or verification. It is a calculated political move. The UNC knows very well that if it names SoO groups and a senior Kuki leader, the Indian Army and Assam Rifles will be compelled to launch operations against Kuki villages and SoO designated camps. It is an attempt to use the Indian security forces as a tool to protect and avenge its own armed cadres operating in Kuki areas. This is not a demand for justice; it is a weaponization of the security apparatus to escalate the conflict.
Let us be very clear. No one should celebrate any death. Every loss of human life, whether Kuki or Naga, is tragic and painful. We do not glorify violence. But justice must be impartial and must start from the beginning. You cannot demand justice only for the last incident while deliberately ignoring the first incident that provoked it.
If the UNC genuinely wants an SIT, we welcome an SIT. But that SIT must not be selective. It must investigate the August 27 incident, but it must also investigate the continuous attacks on Kuki farmers since January 2026, the killing of more than 14 Kuki civilians including pastors and pregnant women since March 2026, the illegal tax collection network on IT Road, and most importantly, the true identity and affiliation of the four deceased. Let the investigation reveal whether they were innocent civilians or active NSCN-IM and ZUF-K cadres.
You cannot remain silent when a farmer is attacked, beaten and killed, but cry loudly for justice when the attacker himself is killed in self-defence. That is not human rights. That is ethnic politics at its worst.
The Genna called by the UNC on August 28 across Naga areas is therefore not a genuine mourning for innocent civilians. It is a mourning for failed extortionists who were stopped by brave farmers protecting their constitutional right to live, to farm and to feed their families.
