The Kuki-Zos were about to finalise a political peace pact with the Union Home Ministry and the Manipur government a day before ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei people erupted in Manipur on May 3, 2023, a spokesperson of an insurgent group said.
Aron Kipgen, the spokesperson of the United People’s Front (UPF), a Kuki-Zo group that signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact with the Ministry and the Manipur government, told The Hindu that they were conveyed Home Minister Amit Shah’s message to either culminate the political settlement or wind up the pact first signed in 2008 following Naga-Kuki violence.
Mr. Kipgen said negotiations before May 2023 focused on autonomy with executive, financial, and judicial powers. But after the displacement of the Kuki-Zo people following the violence, the groups have changed their demand to a separate administration, including a Union Territory with a legislature or a similar constitutional arrangement.
He said that under the SoO pact, representatives of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the UPF, the two umbrella bodies of Kuki-Zo insurgent groups, met the Centre’s interlocutor A.K. Mishra and Intelligence Bureau officials in Imphal on May 2, 2023. The meeting was convened after Mr. Shah directed officials to fast-track the peace process, he said.
“The message was that SoO needs to come to an end. Meaning, if a political solution can be reached, it is time to implement it. And if a political solution cannot be reached, it is time to close the chapter,” Mr. Kipgen said.
Mr. Kipgen said the KNO and UPF representatives went to the May 2 meeting expecting that the negotiations would continue over the following few days and culminate in a political settlement in New Delhi.
“We were expecting that on May 3, the negotiation will continue, on May 4 it will continue and might continue till May 5 or 6. Following [that], the team would have been taken to New Delhi to sign a political settlement pact in the presence of the Union Home Minister,” he said.
According to Mr. Kipgen, the negotiations until May 2023 centred on an autonomous arrangement drawing from provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and then Chief Minister N. Biren Singh was aware of the deal.
The Kuki-Zo groups had sought financial autonomy and executive and judicial powers, he said, adding that they also wanted recognition of the community’s customary practices and traditional justice mechanisms under the proposed arrangement.
“There were some points where the interlocutor brought up something we could not agree [to]. In any negotiation, it cannot be 100% agreed upon. Some negotiations were kept pending, where the solution could be reached and that could be continued,” he said.
Mr. Kipgen said the talks had nevertheless progressed sufficiently for the groups to believe that the outstanding issues could be resolved. But the violence that broke out the following day brought the negotiations to an abrupt halt, he said.
“We never believed that communal clashes in Manipur would happen on a date when the situation was on the verge of bringing a political solution,” Mr. Kipgen said.
He alleged that the violence subsequently appeared to have been planned and claimed that Kuki-Zo houses in mixed neighbourhoods in Imphal had been selectively targeted.
Mr. Kipgen said the mass displacement and geographical separation of the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities after May 3, 2023, fundamentally altered the premise on which the groups had negotiated with the Centre before the violence.
“The whole community has come with one resolution that we can no longer stay under the same administration. We need a separate administration. For the SoO groups, this is the aspiration of the people that we carry forward,” he said.
The groups subsequently proposed a Union Territory with a legislature, citing Article 239A of the Constitution, and held detailed negotiations with the Centre on the executive and financial powers that such an arrangement could have, Mr. Kipgen said.
He added that the Centre had since conveyed through its interlocutor that it did not have a policy of creating new Union Territories. The Kuki-Zo groups, however, continue to press for a constitutional arrangement providing a separate administration.
The UPF leader said political dialogue with the Centre was continuing and that he had met the current interlocutor, Ajit Lal, in a personal capacity, adding that no date had yet been fixed for the next formal round of talks with the SoO groups though another meeting had been promised “very soon”.
Around 300 people have been killed since ethnic violence erupted in the State in 2023. The violence has now expanded to Naga and Kuki communities.
Published – September 18, 2026 09:06 pm IST
