Manipur Observes Three-Day Mourning For MLA Vungzagin Valte Who Was Assaulted In Ethnic Violence
New Delhi: Manipur's government has declared a three-day state of mourning beginning Sunday (February 22) to mark the death of BJP MLA Vungzagin Valte, who was grievously injured by miscreants when the ethnic violence broke out in the state in May 2023.
Valte, a Zomi legislator who represented the Thanlon seat in Manipur's predominantly Kuki-Zo Churachandpur district, passed away on Saturday in Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, to which he was airlifted and shifted from the northeastern state earlier this month after his condition deteriorated.
A day after the ethnic violence broke out on May 3, 2023, Valte, who was returning from then-chief minister N. Biren Singh's office in Imphal, was attacked and hurt by a mob that also killed his Kuki-Zo driver but spared their Meitei security officer, The Hindu has reported. The newspaper notes that no one has been arrested yet for the assault.
He was moved to Delhi for treatment in June 2023 and returned to his native Churachandpur via Mizoram in April 2025, wheelchair-bound and unable to speak fast or loudly. After his health worsened two weeks ago the legislator was airlifted to Delhi.
Chief minister Y. Khemchand Singh paid his last respects to Valte in Gurugram on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too condoled his death.
Civil society organisations representing the Kuki-Zo communities have expressed sorrow at Valte's death. The Kuki-Zo Council said on Sunday that “the continued failure to deliver justice” for the attack on the legislator “reflects the deep insecurity and absence of trust that the Kuki-Zo people face under the present Manipur administration”.
“The suffering and death of Pu Valte, and countless others, stand as stark reminders that the Kuki-Zo are no longer safe” in predominantly Meitei localities, the organisation said, adding that “in this reality the demand for a separate administration is not political rhetoric but a necessary condition for justice, security and lasting peace”.
The Committee on Tribal Solidarity body has reportedly called for a ‘total shutdown’ in the Sadar Hills region of the largely Kuki-Zo Kangpokpi district once Valte's body is brought to Manipur as part of a “collective mourning for a fallen tribal leader”.
Valte himself was an advocate for a ‘separate administration’ for the Kuki-Zo people in the wake of the ethnic violence, having co-signed a memorandum to the prime minister with other Kuki-Zo MLAs in September saying that the tribal community could ‘never live in peace under the same roof again’ with the Meiteis.
Thirty-three months after the violence between Manipur's Meitei and Kuki-Zo people broke out, the two communities remain virtually segregated from each other by securitised ‘buffer zones’ and many thousands of people who were displaced by the strife continue to be lodged in relief camps.
Valte was a three-time legislator for Thanlon, first representing it as a Congress politician between 2012 and 2017 and thereafter as a BJP leader. He was a minister with multiple portfolios during his 2017-22 stint as MLA.
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