GUWAHATI
A proposed peace march on Saturday (March 8, 2025), timed to coincide with the Centre’s deadline for the start of ‘free movement’ on the highways, has put Manipur on the boil again.
Security has been heightened in the State’s Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley and the surrounding hills inhabited mostly by the tribal Kuki-Zos, ahead of a potentially volatile “march to the hills” planned by the Federation of Civil Societies (FOCS), a valley-based conglomerate of about 20 organisations.
The umbrella body claimed that the march is a peace-building initiative, following Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s directive to allow unrestricted movement on the roads linking Imphal to the rest of the country from March 8.
Reject call for free movement
Kuki-Zo organisations, however, said the proposed march was a “dangerous provocation”, and warned FOCS members against setting foot on the tribal hills. The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), representing the Kuki-Zo communities, also rejected Mr. Shah’s call for “free movement”.
The tribal group said that facilitating the march would be a “blatant breach” of the buffer zones – a belt of foothills around the Imphal Valley – working as a shield against violence from “secessionist Meitei militias”.
While the non-tribal Meiteis dominate the Imphal Valley, almost at the centre of Manipur’s map, the Kuki-Zos and Nagas share the hills unequally. The Kuki-Zos are concentrated largely on the lower hills surrounding the valley.
‘No co-existence’
Since the ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei people broke out in May 2023, flights have been the only mode of communication for the Imphal Valley’s residents with the country beyond. They have not had access to two arterial highways passing through areas dominated by the Kuki-Zo people.
The CoTU and other organisations such as the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum said that free movement could be considered if the Centre grants the demand of the Kuki-Zo people for a separate administration or Union Territory. They ruled out co-existence with the Meitei people.
‘Give peace a chance’
A FOCS spokesperson said the organisation has no plans to call off the march. “Manipur has suffered a bloody conflict for almost two years. It is time to give peace a chance, and there cannot be any better opportunity than this, especially when the State is under President’s Rule and the Centre wants free movement,” he said.
Manipur police officials did not take calls but a central security agency said they were alert to a possible conflict over the peace march.
Meanwhile, the State police said that people have handed over more than 1,000 firearms along with ammunition during the time offered by the government to voluntarily surrender looted arms and illegally held weapons. The deadline for surrender expired on Thursday.
The surrendered weapons included handguns, machine guns, grenades, mortars, AK-56, and INSAS rifles.
