Manipur: Naga Groups Release Remaining 14 Kuki Hostages; Fate of Six Missing Nagas Unclear

New Delhi: Naga groups on Tuesday (June 9) released the 14 Kuki individuals they had continued to hold hostage in Manipur for close to a month amid simmering ethnic tensions, while the fate of six Nagas whom members of that community say remain with their Kuki captors is unclear.

Manipur's police said on Tuesday that the 14 Kuki individuals were released from the predominantly Naga Senapati district and, following a medical examination, were returned to their Taphou Kuki village in Kangpokpi district.

United Naga Council president N. Lorho told the press that the 14 Kukis were released in view of Union home minister Amit Shah's assurance via the Nagaland chief minister that the government would work to find the six missing Nagas. “We have made the first move on humanitarian grounds,” he told the Indian Express.

Manipur chief minister Y. Khemchand Singh and deputy chief minister Nemcha Kipgen, who is Kuki, welcomed the 14 Kukis' release and praised the Naga groups for freeing them, although neither official mentioned the six missing Nagas.

Kuki and Naga groups took people from each other's community hostage on May 13 in tit-for-tat moves amid ethnic strife between the two sides, which became inflamed when three Thadou church leaders were ambushed and shot dead in Kangpokpi earlier that day. Some say the Thadous belong to the broader Kuki-Zo community, but others still deny that notion.

Both sides released 14 hostages two days later but the Nagas continued to keep 14 Kukis hostage. They had planned to release the remaining Kukis on June 1 but deferred doing so in view of protests by Naga groups demanding a hostage exchange.

Meanwhile, Kuki groups denied holding any more Naga people captive even as six members of that community remained missing.

Nagaland and Meghalaya chief ministers Neiphiu Rio and Conrad Sangma also hailed the Kukis' release on Tuesday and called for the six Nagas to be returned as well.

The hostage crisis takes place amid strife between Manipur's Kukis and Nagas that began with a scuffle in February but spiralled into violence, with people burning homes belonging to either community and even alleging militant attacks from across the border with Myanmar.

These tensions occur alongside the strife between Kukis and Meiteis in Manipur, which continues simmering and sporadically escalates into violence more than three years after erupting on May 3, 2023. The crisis has physically cleaved the two communities apart and they are virtually segregated from each other by ‘buffer zones’ patrolled by security forces.

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