ATRs of Manipur govt to NHRC: A demonstration of Institutional Failure, Ethnic Tagetting and State's complicity, says Kuki rights body

The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR), representing the aggrieved Kuki-Zo tribal minority, has submitted its final representation to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in response to the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) furnished by the Government of Manipur and manipur police on April this year stating that "the reports demonstrate a systematic denial of institutional failure, ethnic targeting, and state complicity in the ongoing ethnic cleansing pogrom that began on May 3, 2023."

"We contend that the ATRs are incomplete, misleading, and legally insufficient. They rely on selective data, evasive 'N/A' responses, and the unfounded narrative of 'mutual communal clashes,' while ignoring the disproportionate atrocities against the Kuki-Zo people, stalled investigations, and pervasive impunity," said, H. Shokhopao Mate, Chairman KOHUR, in a representation submitted to NHRC on Monday.
KOHUR chairman allegedly that Manipur authorities' submission to NHRC drew on irrefutable judicial findings, authoritative international human rights reports, and independent fact-finding - a demonstration on why the ATRs must be rejected outrightly and why the NHRC should intervene urgently to prevent further irreversible harm.
1. Context of the Conflict:
The violence, triggered by a Manipur High Court recommendation on 14 April 2023 regarding the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, has escalated into a state-facilitated ethnic cleansing campaign that has shattered lives and communities. By November 2024, 258 people had been killed — disproportionately from the Kuki-Zo community — and over 60,000 were displaced, 97% of whom were from Kuki-Zo areas.
Government sources admit that 4,786 houses were burnt and 386 religious structures, including over 250 Kuki-Zo churches, were vandalised. This constitutes a calculated assault on cultural and spiritual landmarks, erasing identity. Investigators note that more than 6,000 firearms and 600,000 rounds of ammunition were looted from state armouries and police stations, arming Meitei militias such as Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun.
"Yet the ATRs name no perpetrators, shielding those responsible," KOHUR accused Government of Manipur.
The resulting segregation has left Kuki-Zo villages empty, with thousands languishing in squalid relief camps and an entire community cut off from essential services. Imphal airport, for instance, is now inaccessible, forcing perilous 12- to 14-hour journeys to Aizawl for survival. This is not mere unrest, but a deliberate engineering of demographic erasure, demanding the NHRC’s immediate scrutiny.

2. Supreme Court Findings and Judicial Oversight:
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly reprimanded authorities for failing to protect citizens, exposing the hollow assurances in the ATRs. On 1 August 2023, a bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed that police investigations were “lethargic” and declared an “absolute breakdown of law and order [and] machinery of the State” in Manipur. The bench summoned the Director General of Police and criticised the delayed registration of FIRs amid 6,532 cases.
In August 2023, the Court constituted a three-member committee headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal to monitor relief and rehabilitation. This committee has submitted 37 reports as of December 2024, detailing stalled probes, witness intimidation, and the urgent need for victim-centric measures.
"The ATRs omit these findings, claiming only 'hectic efforts' without evidence," it stated.
On 9 December 2024, another bench ordered the Manipur government to disclose lists of all properties burnt, looted, or encroached upon and to explain compensation mechanisms— a directive the ATRs flagrantly ignore, with districts like Bishnupur and Kangpokpi reporting only “routine patrolling” without restitution. These judicial findings, backed by 25 hearings in 2023 alone, underscore the institutional collapse that the ATRs deny,affirming that the violence was “not spontaneous but planned and ethnically targeted."
3. State Failure, Selective Prosecutions, and Justice-System Bias:
The ATRs’ claims of “no evidence of state-sponsored actions” and balanced relief mask a profound institutional collapse that has left Kuki-Zo lives in limbo.
(i). Lack of Healthcare and Infrastructure: Over 380 relief camps remain overcrowded and unsanitary, breeding preventable diseases. Entire villages such as Torbung (razed on 5 May 2023) and N. Mollen (burnt on 6 June 2023, with 72 homes destroyed) have not been rebuilt. Tengnoupal district relies on a single Community Health Centre, Kangpokpi’s civil hospital functions at the level of a primary health centre, and Pherzawl has only a non-functioning Primary Health Sub-Centre. This lack of infrastructure leaves residents without basic care and leads to needless deaths.
(ii). Biased Arrests and Bail: Multiple Kuki-Zo civilians, including former MLA T. Thangzalam Haokip (71, with ailments), have been detained under the UAPA for months without trial. In stark contrast, five Meitei men arrested under the UAPA and the Official Secrets Act— after being caught in police uniforms with INSAS, SLR, and .303 rifles— were granted bail by a Special NIA court for lack of terrorism evidence. They were later re-arrested amid public outcry.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum condemns this as systemic bias,exacerbated by the fact that nearly all judges in special courts and the Manipur High Court are Meitei, which erodes trust in justice for the minority.
iii. Targeted Attack on MLA Vungzagin Valte and His Driver: On 4 May 2023, Kuki-Zo BJP MLA Vungzagin Valte was brutally attacked by a mob in Imphal, leaving him paralysed; his driver, Thanghoulal, was lynched on the spot. Despite widespread outrage and eyewitness accounts, no arrests have been made— exemplifying selective inaction and the peril facing Kuki-Zo leaders in the capital.
(iv). Unresolved Killings and Sexual Violence Against Kuki-Zo Civilians: Income Tax officer Letminthang Haokip was dragged from his Imphal quarters on 4 May 2023, beaten, and burnt; his charred body was found in a CPWD quarter. No arrests have been made.
Olivia Chongloi and Florence Hangsing, two Kuki-Zo women at a Konung Mamang car wash, were molested, gang-raped, and murdered by Meitei mobs on 4 May 2023. Despite an FIR filed on 18 May, no action has been taken.
Mrs. Gouzavung (57, a Manipur under-secretary) and her son Goulalsang were dragged from their car in Lamphel on 4 May 2023, beaten with sticks and rods, and killed by a mob. Their bodies were recovered from the morgue, and a Zero FIR was filed— yet no arrests have been made.
On 4 June 2023, seven-year-old Tongsing Hangsing, his mother Meena, and aunt Lydia— who were already wounded by bullets—were intercepted in an ambulance near Iroisemba. The ambulance was set ablaze, and they were burnt alive. A CBI probe is ongoing, but no arrests have been made.
These horrors— lynchings, rapes, and the burning of innocents— reveal a pattern of targeted savagery against Kuki-Zo people, especially women and children, met with state indifference.
(v) Disproportionate Casualties and Denial of Services: From 3 May 2023, mobs systematically razed Kuki-Zo localities, with the early victims overwhelmingly from our community. Survivor testimonies and reports indicate no credible Meitei deaths in the first weeks. The Kuki-Zo, who constitute 16% of the population, face structural discrimination from the Meitei-majority state government (55%). This is now amplified by segregation that bars access to Imphal airport and valley services.
This situation demands NHRC-mandated infrastructure development, such as roads (Tengnoupal–Churachandpur, Tengnoupal–Kangpokpi) and an airfield (Chandel–Churachandpur) for safe evacuation, KOHUR stated.
(vi) Human Rights Violations and Constitutional Breaches:
The pogrom demonstrates egregious breaches of Articles 14 (equality), 19 (freedoms), 21 (life and liberty), 25(religion), and 371C (tribal safeguards) of the Constitution, alongside violations of the ICCPR (Arts. 2, 6, 9, 17, 18, 26, 27), ICESCR (Arts. 11–13), CEDAW, and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
Amnesty International’s 2023 report documents over 100 killings, 250+ churches burnt, and 50,000+ people displaced into subhuman camps, alongside biased policing and “shoot-at-sight” orders that violate UN standards on lethal force. Its 2025 update highlights 200+ deaths and 60,000 displacements after 400+ days, unprosecuted rapes and beheadings by Arambai Tenggol (armed with looted weapons), and zero accountability amid former Chief Minister Biren Singh’s inflammatory rhetoric.

The UN OHCHR’s September 2023 assessment flags 160 deaths (mostly Kuki-Zo), 300+ injuries, thousands of homes and churches destroyed, and gender-based violence as a “weapon of war”— including gang rapes, naked parading, and burnings- incited by hate speech. Its 2025 report decries reprisals against advocates like the Centre for Social Development. The PUCL’s August 2025 Independent People’s Tribunal (674 pages) concludes the conflict was “orchestrated by state complicity,” with massacres, sexual terror, and camp suffering validating Kuki-Zo claims while exposing biased probes.
These sources converge on one conclusion: the violence constitutes organized minority persecution, not “clashes.”
(vii). Argument for Separate Administration:
Given the scale of the atrocities, the collapse of constitutional machinery, and the prevailing impunity, the Kuki-Zo people cannot coexist under Meitei-majority rule.
All ten Kuki-Zo MLAs have petitioned for a Union Territory with legislative powers. The Supreme Court’s “absolute breakdown” declaration, alongside mass displacements and non-prosecutions, proves the state’s incapacity to protect its citizens. A separate administration— Union Territory with Legislative power or equivalent means—is not secession.
It is a constitutional imperative to secure life, dignity, and self-governance, as international law affirms the right to autonomy against existential threats.
The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR), therefore, humbly requested that the NHRC-
(a). Should reject the ATRs as evasive and insufficient and issue a public censure within 15 days.
(b). Must order an independent judicial inquiry (within 30 days) into state complicity, drawing on findings from the Supreme Court, the Gita Mittal Committee, UN OHCHR, Amnesty International, and PUCL.
(c). Should direct the immediate protection of Kuki-Zo properties in Imphal and expedite compensation and rehabilitation as directed by the Supreme Court, with disbursements beginning within 60 days.
(d. Must recommend and support the establishment of a Separate Administration for the Kuki-Zo people to restore security, dignity, and self-governance.
(e). Should mandate immediate action against armed militias (e.g., Arambai Tenggol, Meitei Leepun), political actors, and negligent officials, including prosecutions under the Arms Act and anti-terror laws, and repeal biased AFSPA extensions.
(f). Should order the immediate construction of district hospitals in Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, and Kangpokpi. Currently,one CHC serves Tengnoupal, a civil hospital in Kangpokpi functions only as a PHC, and Pherzawl’s sub-centre is defunct. This neglect is causing preventable deaths.
(g). Should order the construction of safe alternative roads and an airfield. As ethnic segregation renders highways impassable, the Kuki-Zo people must have safe corridors for travel and aid.