The return of Meitei insurgents marks a new turn in Manipur conflict

On August 19, the residents of Thawai Kuki woke up to the dull thud of automatic gunfire.

The picturesque hillside village of 55 families is nestled amidst rolling paddy fields in Manipur’s Kamjong district. On the eastern side are undulating hills; to the west is the National Highway-202, a storied mountainous road that runs between Imphal and Nagaland’s Mokokchung, via Ukhrul.

The highway is barely a few hundred metres from the village as the crow flies, but in between is the Thoubal river, and to cross it, there is only a rickety bamboo bridge held together by rusty metal wires that wobbles menacingly with every footstep.

It is this bridge that most residents took to flee to safety that morning.

As the gunfire relented, a group of young men from the village, armed with single- and double-barreled rifles, went back to the hillside. Lying on the ground there amid a pool of blood were three of their fellow villagers, their guns by the side.

Jamkhogin Haokip, Thangkhokai Haokip, and Hollenson Baite had spent the night at a bunker, guarding the village. Since May, when conflict broke out between Manipur’s Meitei and Kuki communities, bunkers and village defence committees have mushroomed in the state, particularly in areas where the Meitei-dominant...

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