Stage set for talks on Manipur crisis

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 4: Civil society organisations belonging to Kuki community, Meitei community and officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs will hold talks on the Manipur crisis at Delhi on April 5, 2025.
Notably, MHA officials led by AK Mishra held a meeting with Kuki CSOs at Churachandpur on March 11, 2025. Coming back to Imphal, the same team held talks with Meitei CSOs the next day.
The talks will continue at Delhi tomorrow.
Representatives of AMUCO and FOCS will participate in the talks while the Kukis would be represented by Kuki-Zo Council, ITLF, and CoTU.
However, it is not yet clear whether the three sides will sit together at the meeting tomorrow or not.
Nonetheless, it has been confirmed that AMUCO and FOCS representatives will hold talks with MHA officials at 11 am tomorrow but the venue of the talk has not been notified till this evening.
A three member team of AMUCO has already reached Delhi this evening.
Moreover, it could not be confirmed at what time KZC, ITLF and COTU representatives will hold talks with MHA officials.
Saturday’s meeting will be the first such tripartite meeting after ethnic riots broke out 23 months ago between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities over the tribal status demand of the Meiteis.
Though Manipur Government officials confirmed Saturday’s first meeting in the National capital, they refused to disclose the agenda of the tripartite meet.
Leaders of the Kuki and Meitei communities separately said that MHA advisor for the North East region, AK Mishra, invited the leaders of the organisations of both the communities.
Mishra last month held separate meetings with various organisations of the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo in Manipur.
Last year also the MHA tried to hold a tripartite meeting with the leaders of the two communities but the tribal organisations (Kuki-Zo) refused to meet the Meitei leaders.
Leaders of the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), a conglomerate of 13 organisations of the Kuki-Zo tribal communities in Manipur, held a meeting with senior officials of the MHA in New Delhi on January 17 and discussed their demands and the prevailing situation in the North Eastern State.
The four-member delegation of the KZC, led by its Chairman Henlianthang Thanglet, met AK Mishra and Joint Director, MHA, Rajesh Kamble.
Both the MHA officials and the KZC leaders did not share the details of the discussions with the media.
The KZC and 10 tribal MLAs have been demanding a Separate Adminis- tration equivalent to a Union Territory for the Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas.
The Meitei organisations have been demanding steps against militants, the drug menace, infiltrators from Myanmar and introduction of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).