KOHUR Slams UNC Rejoinder as “Fact Distortion and Moral Evasion” Over Terror Allegations

The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust (KOHUR) has launched a blistering attack on the United Naga Council (UNC), accusing it of “deflection, inversion of facts, and moral evasion” over the May 13 ambush in Kangpokpi district that claimed the lives of three senior Kuki-Zo Christian clergymen, while forcefully demanding the immediate and unconditional release of 14 Kuki-Zo civilians allegedly being held by Naga armed elements in Senapati district.

In a strongly worded rejoinder issued against the UNC’s May 21 statement titled “Rejoinder to KOHUR,” the Kuki rights body alleged that the UNC was attempting to “whitewash the conduct of armed Naga elements, shield identified perpetrators, and recast the victims of a premeditated act of terrorism as instigators.”

KOHUR declared that it “rejects this attempt in the strongest possible terms.”

Recounting the May 13 attack in detail, KOHUR said a convoy of two clearly marked vehicles belonging to the Thadou Baptist Association India (TBAI), returning from the 1st United Baptist Convention Assembly at Chiengkonpang in Lamka (Churachandpur), came under “sustained automatic-weapons fire” from elevated positions at Saheibung Peak, also known as “Zero Point,” between Kotzim and Kotlen villages under New Keithelmanbi Police Station in Kangpokpi district.

According to KOHUR, security forces disclosed that eight to ten armed assailants participated in the ambush.

The attack left three senior Kuki-Zo Christian leaders dead — Rev. Dr. Vumthang Sitlhou, President of TBAI and former General Secretary of the Manipur Baptist Convention; Rev. Kaigoulun Lhouvum, Secretary of Finance, Youth & Music Department, TBAI; and Pastor Paogoulen Sitlhou, Superintendent Pastor of IT Road/Twilang Area, TBAI.

Several others, including senior church functionaries and drivers, sustained grievous injuries.

KOHUR stressed that Rev. Dr. Vumthang Sitlhou had, in the days preceding his killing, actively worked as a “principal Kuki-Zo–Naga Christian bridge-builder,” having convened peace consultations under the Nagaland Joint Christian Forum in Kohima and participated in Kuki-Zo–Naga Christian leaders’ dialogue in Churachandpur just a day before the ambush.

“The man whose murder the UNC now euphemises as an ‘ambush’ devoted the final weeks of his life to peace between our two peoples,” the statement said.

The rights body further slammed the UNC for allegedly suggesting that “the bullets and the guns were but yours only,” terming the claim “a defamatory inversion of a documented atrocity in which three Christian ministers were slaughtered while travelling on a mission of inter-community reconciliation.”

In one of its sharpest assertions, KOHUR cited a May 13 press release issued by the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), signed by its Information and Publicity Secretary Louis Gangmei, which, according to KOHUR, publicly and unequivocally named the NSCN-IM as the perpetrator behind the ambush.

Quoting the ZUF statement extensively, KOHUR said the armed organisation had condemned the attack as a “barbaric ambush” and “inhumane and cowardly act” allegedly carried out by “NSCN-IM operatives in the name of ‘ZUF Kamson’.”

KOHUR highlighted that the ZUF had categorically stated there existed “no such faction as ‘ZUF Kamson’,” alleging instead that the label was fabricated and maliciously used by NSCN-IM to mislead the public and tarnish the Zeliangrong community.

“This is not an allegation by KOHUR. It is an admission emanating from within the Naga armed landscape itself,” the statement asserted.

The organisation accused the UNC of maintaining a “studied silence” over the ZUF’s allegations and questioned why the council had “chosen instead to pretend it does not exist.”

KOHUR also drew attention to a statement issued by the Tahamzam Youth Forum (TYF) on May 22, alleging that the forum had openly admitted the “Naga Village Guard, Northern Command” was holding 14 Kuki-Zo civilians and was prepared to exchange them for six missing Naga men.

Calling the statement “a public confession of unlawful detention of civilian hostages by an armed Naga formation,” KOHUR said it was impossible to reconcile the UNC’s claims of Naga civilian innocence with what it described as “open admission” by a Naga organisation operating in its political orbit.

The rights body sharply contrasted what it called the humanitarian conduct of the Kuki-Zo community with the continued captivity of the 14 civilians.

KOHUR recalled that after the March 11 killings of two Kuki-Zo civilians — Thengin Baite and Thangboimang Khongsai — in Ukhrul district, over 20 Tangkhul Naga civilians briefly held by Kuki villagers were released unharmed “within hours” and “without precondition.”

It further claimed that on May 14, a day after the Kangpokpi ambush, five Naga individuals were also released by the Kuki-Zo side as a goodwill gesture.

“By stark contrast,” KOHUR alleged, armed Naga elements abducted civilians from Taphou and Hengbung villages following the May 13 ambush, and as of the date of the rejoinder, 14 Kuki-Zo civilians between the ages of 16 and 50 remained in captivity in Senapati district.

“Their continued detention is a textbook violation of international humanitarian norms,” it said.

In one of the most forceful portions of the rejoinder, KOHUR declared that the “credibility of the UNC will be measured by what happens to those 14 men, not by the elegance of its press releases.”

At the same time, the organisation reiterated its demand for the safe return of six missing Naga men — Rev. Dr. Manu Thiumai, Pastor Kenpibou, Ch. Phenrilungbou, Dilip Thiumai, Phenrongwibou Thiumai and Kaliwangbou Abonmai — stressing that “their safety is a matter of equal concern.”

KOHUR further accused the UNC of selective silence, pointing out that while the council had criticised KOHUR for allegedly failing to condemn the killing of a Chiru Naga civilian, it had itself not issued “a single sentence of condemnation” over the killings of Rev. Dr. Vumthang Sitlhou, Rev. Kaigoulun Lhouvum and Pastor Paogoulen Sitlhou.

The organisation also alleged that the UNC had failed to condemn the March 11 killings of two Kuki-Zo civilians in Ukhrul district, the April 24 assault on Mulam and Songphel villages in Ukhrul district, and the February 2026 arson attack at Litan Sareikhong in which around 50 houses and four government quarters were allegedly burnt.

“Selective condemnation is precisely the charge that the UNC has, by its own conduct, earned,” KOHUR said.

Describing the May 13 killings as “the targeted killing of religious figures,” the organisation asserted that the slain men “were not combatants” but “ordained ministers of the Gospel” travelling in clearly marked church vehicles after attending a Christian assembly.

“It is an act that strikes at the conscience not only of the Kuki-Zo community but of every faith community in this country and beyond,” the statement said.

KOHUR then issued a series of hardline demands, reiterating with “the full weight of its institutional mandate” that:

I). All 14 Kuki-Zo civilians allegedly held in Senapati district and the six missing Naga men in Kangpokpi district be released immediately and unconditionally;

ii). The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conduct a transparent, time-bound and impartial probe into the May 13 ambush and the killings of the three church leaders;

iii). Perpetrators be identified and prosecuted irrespective of organisational affiliation, including examination of the ZUF’s allegation that NSCN-IM cadres carried out the ambush under the fabricated “ZUF-Kamson” banner;

iv). Independent inquiries be launched into the March 11 killings in Ukhrul district, the April 24 Mulam-Songphel assault, and the February arson attack at Litan Sareikhong;

v). Immediate cessation of all civilian hostage-taking by any armed or non-state actor operating in the region, with the framework for such cessation guaranteed by central security forces, given theproximity of Konsakhul and Leilon Vaiphei to the 57 Mountain Division cantonment at Leimakhong;

vi). and the UNC publicly clarify its stand on both the ZUF’s allegations against NSCN-IM and the TYF’s admission regarding the detention of 14 Kuki-Zo civilians.

“KOHUR has neither the time nor the inclination for a war of press releases,” the statement stated.

“Our concern is the lives of innocent people, the dignity of the dead, the safety of those still held, and the prevention of further atrocity.”

Inviting the UNC to “abandon the politics of denial,” the organisation urged it to join in “condemning the murder of innocent civilians and clergy and in securing the release of all remaining captives — Kuki-Zo and Naga alike.”

“Truth is not partisan. Justice is not tribal. The path to peace in Manipur cannot be paved with evasions,” KOHUR statement concluded.