KSO Alleges Vehicle Torched After Naga Volunteers Promise Release; Victim Says ‘They Didn’t Keep Their Word’

The Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), Sadar Hills, on Thursday accused volunteers of the Naga People’s Organisation (NPO) of violently intercepting a vehicle carrying essential commodities to Kangpokpi and subsequently setting it ablaze, alleging that the incident exposed the “treachery” and escalating hostility faced by Kuki-Zo civilians amid the prolonged Naga blockade.

The KSO said its investigation had established that the vehicle was returning from Taphou Kuki after collecting essential commodities through a Naga friend, amid what it described as nearly three months of economic blockade imposed by Naga groups against the Kuki-Zo people.

According to the organisation, the vehicle was intercepted at Mayangkhang by persons identified as NPO volunteers, who allegedly dragged the occupants out, physically assaulted them and took away the commodities.

The KSO alleged that the volunteers subsequently assured the two Kuki men that they could return home, while their vehicle and their Naga friend would be released the following day.

“That assurance was not honoured. Instead, the vehicle was allegedly set ablaze and reduced to ashes,” the organisation said, describing the incident as an “unprovoked and treacherous assault” and a deliberate provocation.

The account of one of the occupants, Haopu Chongloi, a resident of Kangpokpi, broadly corroborated the sequence of events described by the KSO.

Haopu said the prolonged blockade had forced them to travel to Taphou Kuki to obtain basic necessities. A friend, from Naga community, Pukhroni from Daili village, accompanied them and went to Senapati while Haopu and another companion waited at Taphou Kuki.

After Pukhroni returned, the three travelled together towards Kangpokpi. However, they were allegedly chased and stopped at Ningthoupham Mayangkhang by unidentified persons whom they could not establish as volunteers or members of any particular organisation.

“We were taken to an office at Senapati, where negotiations took place. We requested them to release our vehicle, but they refused,” Haopu said.

According to him, the persons holding them eventually allowed him and his brother to leave, while telling them that their vehicle would be released the next day along with their friend from Daili village, who was allegedly detained.

“Later, we came to know through social media that our vehicle had been burnt down,” Haopu said.

“It is very unfortunate that they did not keep their word,” he added.

The KSO condemned the alleged incident as an attack on civilians struggling to secure basic survival necessities during the prolonged economic blockade, saying such actions undermined any semblance of communal harmony between the Kuki-Zo and Naga communities.

The organisation demanded that the NPO take “full organisational and moral accountability” for the alleged actions of its volunteers and compensate the victims for the destroyed vehicle, stolen commodities and the “severe mental trauma” suffered by them.

It also urged the state government and law-enforcement agencies to intervene immediately, identify and prosecute those responsible and ensure justice.

The KSO warned that failure to act promptly and decisively could further deteriorate relations between the Kuki-Zo and Naga communities, holding the NPO, government and concerned authorities responsible for any consequences arising from the alleged incident.