An apex body of Kuki civil society organisations (CSOs) has refused to claim the bodies of two Kuki men allegedly killed by Nagas in Manipur’s Kamjong district on Wednesday (March 12, 2026) until the perpetrators are identified, arrested, and punished.
Announcing a “total shutdown” along the Imphal-Ukhrul Road to protest the killing from Friday (March 13, 2026), the Ukhrul district unit of the Kuki CSO Working Committee has also demanded the relocation of all Kuki villages from the Tangkhul Naga-dominated Ukhrul district to the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district.
According to the committee, the bodies of the two slain men, Thenkhogin Baite and Thangboimang Lunkim, were found in a jungle near Thawai village. They were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs, and their bodies bore signs of assault with sharp objects before being shot.
Thawai village is in Kamjong district, barely 1 km from Shangkai, another violence-hit village in the adjoining Ukhrul district and off the Imphal-Ukhrul road.
The committee said the bodies were recovered around 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday by a joint search team comprising villagers from Shangkai and Thawai and Border Security Force personnel. The bodies were reportedly taken to Imphal for post-mortem examination on the evening of March 12 under police escort, it added.
