Meitei, Kuki-Zo insurgent groups warned against violating ground rules, continuing extortion

After a two-day review of the operations of Meitei and Kuki-Zo insurgent groups, officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Manipur government have warned the outfits that they will face action if they violate ground rules, a senior government official told The Hindu. The groups were asked to check extortion and confine their cadres in their designated camps.

On January 13, a peace monitoring committee chaired by Manipur Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel reviewed the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the United National Liberation Front–Pambei faction (UNLF-P), in Imphal. The UNLF is the oldest armed Meitei insurgent group which, for the first time, signed a peace agreement with the MHA and the Manipur government on November 29, 2023, months after ethnic violence erupted in the State on May 3 the same year. The group operates from Myanmar and advocates for the secession of Manipur from India.

The official said that UNLF-P representatives who attended the meeting were asked to return looted police weapons by the end of April, with all existing weapons in the hands of their cadres, except those required for camp security, to be deposited in armouries by next week.  The group was asked to confine its cadres in their camps, verify their identity, and reduce their strength from the existing 2,100 cadres to 1,200. When the peace pact was signed in 2023, around 80 cadres had surrendered with 31 weapons, and a few more laid down their arms subsequently.

On January 14, in Guwahati, a joint monitoring group comprising A.K. Mishra, the MHA’s Northeast Adviser, officials from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the Manipur government reviewed the ground rules for Kuki-Zo insurgent groups, the United People’s Front and Kuki National Organisation (KNO), who are in a suspension of operations (SoO) pact with the government.

The meetings were held amid indications that an elected government will soon return to Manipur. The State was placed under President’s Rule on February 13, 2025.

It was reiterated to the SoO groups that they must relocate seven designated camps away from areas vulnerable to conflict. The MHA and State government had signed a fresh SoO agreement with the Kuki-Zo insurgent groups on September 4, 2025, with renegotiated ground rules. The first such agreement was signed in 2008 but the Manipur government had refused its annual renewal on February 29, 2024.

“The two meetings centred around enforcement of ground rules, relocation of camps, infrastructure at camps, surrender of weapons, verification of cadres, control of extortion activities. Groups have been warned of action if a violation of ground rules is reported,” said the official.

Mr. Mishra also met Kuki-Zo Council chairman Henlianthang Thanglet at Chuarachandpur on January 13 to seek the civil society group’s cooperation in the restoration of a popular government.

“It was a one-hour meeting. Mr. Mishra was here to discuss participation of Kuki-Zo legislators in the popular government. We conveyed the sentiments of the people who are not in favour of them joining the government as our demands for a separate administration have not been addressed. It is upto the legislators now,” Mr. Thanglet said.

There are ten Kuki-Zo MLAS in the 60-member Manipur Assembly, including seven Kuki-Zo legislators from the BJP.