The Kuki Students' Organisation-Delhi and NCR held a peaceful rally at Jantar Mantar demanding justice and a separate administrative arrangement for the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur.
The memorandum called for a separate administration, relief measures, justice for victims, and protection against further conflict between Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities.
The Kuki Students' Organisation-Delhi and NCR (KSO-DNCR) held a peaceful rally at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, demanding justice and a separate administrative arrangement for the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur, citing over two years of continuing ethnic violence and displacement.
The rally, held under the theme "Forged Government is Forged Justice; Separate Administration is True Justice," saw participation from students, human rights defenders, and community leaders.
Speakers called for constitutional and human rights protection for the affected community, according to a statement issued by the organisation.
In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, KSO-DNCR president Paajahup Guite conveyed the community’s “profound grief and unyielding sense of injustice” since violence broke out in Manipur in May 2023.
“For more than two years, the Kuki-Zo people have lived through an unending nightmare marked by targeted killings, burning of villages, desecration of churches and forced displacement,” the statement read.
The organisation said that more than 220 people have lost their lives and over 60,000 remain displaced across relief camps in Manipur and neighbouring states.
“Despite clear evidence and numerous appeals for accountability,” the group said that justice has remained elusive. It added, “The silence of justice has become deafening,” warning that continued inaction could “fracture faith beyond repair.”
The KSO-DNCR asserted that coexistence under a “majoritarian-controlled state administration” was no longer possible and urged the creation of a separate administrative structure within the Union of India, complete with its own legislature.
The memorandum outlined five key demands — justice and accountability for the violence, establishment of a separate administration, protection against forced justice, humanitarian relief and rehabilitation, and maintenance of a buffer zone between Kuki-Zo and Meitei-inhabited areas to prevent renewed conflict.
Reaffirming its commitment to India’s constitutional principles, the organisation stated, “We do not seek privilege, we seek justice. Let the Kuki-Zo people not remain exiles in their ancestral land.”
(with inputs from PTI)
