Kuki-Zo organisations have threatened not to allow CRPF personnel to leave their camps in the communities’ strongholds in Manipur until the force apologised for the “actions” that led to the death of 10 “village volunteers” in Jiribam district on Monday.

The police had in a statement on Monday said 10 “armed militants” were killed in retaliatory firing after they mounted an attack on a CRPF post at Jakuradhor and the Borobekra police station around 3pm. A CRPF constable was injured in the exchange of fire that lasted for 40-45 minutes.

The bodies were sent to Silchar in Assam for post-mortem.

Condemning the killings, leading Kuki-Zo organisations have claimed that the deceased were village volunteers who were on “routine duty to protect and safeguard our ancestral land and people in Jiribam district”.

The organisations also announced a slew of protest measures against the CRPF, which has been deployed in Manipur since the outbreak of the conflict between the Kuki-Zos and the Meiteis on May 3, 2023.

The Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO) on Tuesday issued a notice stating that no CRPF member would be allowed to leave their camp premises till the central force “publicly acknowledges and apologises for their barbaric action in Jiribam”. Those who defy the directive will do so “at their own risk and responsibility”, the KSO said.

The outfit said the “directive” should be “considered part of the larger movement of non-cooperation against the CRPF” in Kuki-dominated areas.

Manipur police said on Tuesday night that several organisations had issued media releases making “baseless claims” against the CRPF and the police. “The armed militants were not ambushed but were killed during retaliatory firing by the security forces. Had the security forces not retaliated, the damage could have been much more,” the police said.

The Kuki Inpi Jiribam, Tamenglong & Noney (KIJTN), the apex body of Kuki tribes in these three districts, on Tuesday demanded a thorough inquiry by a central investigating agency and immediate withdrawal of the CRPF from every Kuki-Zo village in Jiribam “because their presence now brings a sense of insecurity to the villagers”.

The KIJTN claimed that the Hmar village volunteers had told the CRPF personnel on Monday that the “perpetrators” of the arson at Zairon village on November 7 were allegedly taking shelter at the Jakuradhor police station, “shielded by Manipur police commandos and the CRPF”.

The slain “village volunteers” belonged to the Hmar tribe, which shares the same Zo ancestry as the Kukis, Zomis and Mizos.

They had told the CRPF personnel to hand over the “Meitei militants” to them and that they did not mean any harm to any central security force.

“After successfully engaging in talks with the CRPF personnel, the village volunteers were indiscriminately fired at while they were relaxing, leading to the loss of many lives,” the Kuki Inpi claimed while supporting Tuesday’s total shutdown in areas inhabited by the Kuki-Zos.

The shutdown affected normal life in Kuki-Zo-dominated districts of Manipur.

The Hmar Students’ Association said it found it “appalling” that central and state forces, “instead of upholding peace, have acted in complicity with those perpetuating violence”. It has demanded a CBI-led inquiry into Monday’s “murders” and the November 7 arson, the immediate withdrawal of the CPRF and the Manipur police from Kuki-Zo areas and the deployment of neutral peacekeeping forces to secure Hmar and other tribal villages.

Before the CRPF, the Assam Rifles was accused by Meitei organisations of “siding” with the Kuki-Zos in the ongoing conflict.

The Zomi Students’ Association has announced the immediate “social boycott of the CRPF” in light of its “actions” and demanded a court-monitored probe into “a fake encounter” and immediate transfer of “all Meitei officers of the CRPF”.

The apex body of the Hmar tribes, the Hmar Inpui, expressed shock “over the killing of the Hmar village volunteers by the CRPF” and alleged that the “CRPF unit posted at Jakhradwar operates under a communal Meitei officer who openly donates money to the Arambai Tenggol (a radical Meitei group)”. It also said the “massacred youths were not militants or terrorists”.

While denouncing the “carnage”, the Hmar Inpui said it hoped that a “massacre of this nature is not repeated”.

“The Hmar village volunteers did not die at the hands of enemies; rather at the hands of security forces who were supposed to protect us. When urgency requires great professionalism and objectivity, colluding with the majoritarian interests and actions will only further wreck a state that has failed in every sphere,” the Hmar Inpui said.

It said the CRPF had revealed its “hollow integrity in policing a fragile and volatile political space by siding with the Meitei militants and the Arambai Tenggol”.