- India’s northeastern state of Manipur is facing risks of renewed ethnic violence despite the resignation of its divisive chief minister and the imposition of president’s rule on February 13, 2025.
- India’s Supreme Court expressed concerns over what it termed the “absolute breakdown of law and order” in Manipur after the May 2023 breakout of ethnic violence between the predominant Meitei community and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities.
- The central government should act to end the violence, provide aid to all affected, and build trust among communities. Armed groups and state security forces should be held accountable for abuses.
(New York) – India’s northeastern state of Manipur has faced renewed violence since its divisive chief minister resigned and the government imposed the president’s rule on February 13, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.
At least five people have died and scores injured, including security force members, in recent clashes. On March 8, a man was killed and several were injured in Kangpokpi district when violence broke out after the authorities attempted to restore transportation connections across the state. On March 19, another man was killed following clashes between two tribal communities in the state’s Churachandpur district. The central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should act to end the violence, which has killed more than 260 people and displaced over 60,000 since May 2023, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches all affected. Armed militant groups, government-backed vigilantes, and state security forces should be held accountable for abuses.
“The resignation of Manipur’s divisive chief minister hasn’t ended the distrust among communities that fuels the violence,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “President’s rule should be seen as an opportunity to restore security, impartially prosecute those responsible for abuses, and end the violence in Manipur in a rights-respecting manner.”
From February to March 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 15 people, including human rights activists, lawyers, community organizers, healthcare workers, journalists, and academics from the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities affected by the violence in Manipur.
Ethnic violence between the predominant Meitei community, which is mostly Hindu, and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities, which are largely Christian, has wracked Manipur and its population of estimated 3.2 million for nearly two years. Armed militant groups on both sides, long dormant, have become active again.
The state government led by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that was in power until February 9, 2025, demonstrated a pro-Meitei bias in its response to the violence. Singh’s administration, including the police, allegedly protected Meitei vigilante groups such as the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which have looted weapons from state armories and engaged in mob attacks on the Kuki-Zo. Singh denied allegations of bias.
The state has effectively been split into two ethnic zones separated by buffer areas with police outposts and security force patrols. The valley, with the state capital, Imphal, administrative offices, healthcare centers, and the primary airport, is dominated by the majority Meitei community, while Kuki-Zo and other tribal communities are largely confined to the hills.
Several Kuki women have reported sexual violence including rape by Meitei men. Meitei mobs, including armed militants, have burned down, attacked, and vandalized homes, businesses, villages, and places of worship, mostly targeting the Kuki-Zo community. In September 2024, suspected Kuki militants attacked villages in West Imphal district and in Bishnupur district, killing three Meitei people. In November, suspected Kuki militants abducted and killed three Meitei women and three children in Jiribam district, while two men were burned to death.
The Modi administration has called for recovery of stolen weapons, and has embarked upon talks to reduce violence. Many Manipuris believe the central government should have acted sooner. “We had begged the prime minister to intervene, but he just didn’t care, while hundreds were killed and injured,” one activist said. “Now community ties have completely broken down.”
In August 2023, India’s Supreme Court expressed concerns over what it termed the “absolute breakdown of law and order” in Manipur. It noted that “there are serious allegations including witness statements indicating that the law-enforcing machinery has been inept in controlling the violence and, in certain situations, colluded with the perpetrators,” and called for an investigation into the allegations.
A 40-year-old Kuki farmer from Kangpokpi district has been living with his family in a community-run relief camp in Churachandpur district since a Meitei mob attack in May 2023. “There were more than 200 people along with about a dozen policemen and the mob had sophisticated weapons,” he said. “We had no means to defend ourselves, so we ran toward the jungle. We climbed up on the trees and we saw them burn the houses and the church with kerosene and petrol that they carried with them.”
The former state government’s support for Meitei militants and its complicity in the violence, has eroded trust in the rule of law and revived Kuki-Zo demands for a separate federally administered territory.
Indian authorities should demobilize and disarm vigilante groups, ensure prompt reparation for victims and survivors of abuses, and provide for impartial justice and accountability measures, Human Rights Watch said. All internally displaced people should be provided adequate food, shelter, clean water, appropriate clothing, essential medical services, sanitation, education for children, and other basic assistance and protection services in line with international human rights law, irrespective of religion, ethnicity, or citizenship status.
The authorities should ensure that people have the right to return when conditions are in place for a safe and voluntary process carried out in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, with full and meaningful participation of all affected communities, including the equal participation of women.
Security forces should abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which require security forces to use the minimum necessary force at all times. In dispersing violent assemblies, firearms may only be used when other less harmful means are not practicable but to the minimum extent necessary. Law enforcement officers may only intentionally resort to lethal force when strictly unavoidable to protect life.
The Indian government has announced measures to disarm groups, restore free movement of vehicles, and dismantle community checkpoints to reverse the segregation of communities and restore normalcy in the state.
“The Indian government has taken necessary first steps but needs to make a genuine commitment to respect human rights, provide redress and rehabilitation for victims, and ensure impartial justice,” Pearson said. “The communities need to regain trust in each other but also in the government for this violence to end.”
Human Rights Abuses in Manipur
State Bias, Complicity in Abuse
While chief minister, N. Biren Singh replicated many of the BJP’s divisive policies used nationally to promote Hindu majoritarianism in Manipur state. He claimed without any basis that the Kukis and other mostly Christian tribal groups were providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants from Myanmar and engaging in drug trafficking and deforestation. Meitei community members echoed the accusations that the Kuki-Zo were cultivating poppies for the illegal drug trade, and unfairly benefiting from government quotas for tribal groups in jobs and education. The Kuki-Zo community alleged that the authorities were engaged in discriminatory practices such as escalating the eviction of villagers from forest areas. This led to rising tensions for months before the outbreak of violence in May 2023.
“If at all reconciliation has to happen, then the Indian state must be held accountable,” a Meitei academic said. “The state is an active party in this conflict.”
Singh denied allegations of bias, saying “I am chief minister of every community, be it Meiteis, Kukis or Nagas,” and that he “saved the state from illegal migration, illegal poppy cultivation.” His government told the Supreme Court in September 2023 that, “The Petitioners have made attempts to portray an incorrect position before this Hon’ble Court between two communities where only one community is portrayed as the victim and the other as the aggressor. The State and Union of India have always maintained a neutral stand on the issue and have specifically not sought to selectively highlight some incidents over others.”
Violence erupted on May 3, 2023, after tribal communities protested a Manipur High Court order granting the Meitei community certain benefits, including land ownership in protected areas and quotas in government jobs. In India, such affirmative action is usually reserved for tribal groups to correct historical and structural inequity and discrimination. The Manipur High Court revoked the contentious order in February 2024.
The role of then-Chief Minister Singh in fomenting violence became clear when activists submitted audio tapes to the Ministry of Home Affairs Commission of Inquiry and to the Supreme Court that allegedly contained recordings from a 2023 meeting in the chief minister’s official residence. An independent news website, the Wire, which obtained a copy of the recordings, said it had confirmed the date, subject, and contents. On audio, a voice, apparently Singh’s, describes colluding in the bombing of Kuki villages and shielding Meitei attackers. The then-chief minister and his government said the tapes were “doctored.”
Political Patronage for Civilian Militias
The Manipur state government provided political patronage to armed vigilante groups such as Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun that support the Meitei community. One BJP lawmaker is affiliated with Arambai Tenggol, while the founder of Meitei Leepun is a former member of an organization affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP’s ideological parent organization. The former chief minister had publicly expressed support for Arambai Tenggol.
Following the May 2023 violence, the media reported that mobs including members of Meitei vigilante groups looted more than 6,000 weapons from armories and police stations. About 2,500 have been recovered. The Kuki-Zo communities have alleged that these groups committed assaults, sexual violence, and murder. The Manipur authorities failed to investigate or take action against members of Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun who were implicated in the abuses.
The Meitei groups have also attacked people from their own community who have spoken out against them.
The Imphal-based human rights activist Babloo Loitongbam, a Meitei, faced threats and harassment from the two groups after he criticized their violent actions in a television news interview in May 2023. In October 2023, Meitei Leepun held a news conference, forbidding Loitongbam from appearing on public platforms. A group of about 30 men, allegedly belonging to Arambai Tenggol, vandalized his house. He was also forced to make a public apology for his earlier statement after the groups threatened to burn down his home. In September 2024, Meitei Leepun held another news conference, accusing him of collaborating with the Kuki community against Meitei interests.
In November, UN Human Rights experts wrote to the Indian government expressing concern over the smear campaign against Loitongbam: “We are further concerned that the authorities appear to have taken little to no action in addressing the threats which he and his family face.”
Jos Chongtham, 27, a documentary filmmaker who was investigating the chief minister’s policies on drugs, was abducted in September 2024, allegedly by about 50 members of Meitei Leepun. He told Human Rights Watch that he was held for about eight hours and mistreated. “They confiscated my phone and finally released me saying that I should appear before them whenever they call me,” he said. After Chongtham filed a police report about the kidnapping and assault and held a news conference, he says he “received constant death threats” on his phone and eventually fled Manipur.
Chongtham said this did not stop the attacks against his family. In October 2024, members of Arambai Tenggol went to his house, assaulted his father, confiscated the phones of his family members, and detained them for several hours. “They gave my family an ultimatum that they should produce me within three days, or else they would burn down my home, would try to locate and execute me,” he said.
The police, instead of investigating the attack against him and his family, put pressure on them to withdraw their complaint. “In March 2025,” he said, “the police went to my house to ask my family to rescind the FIR [First Information Report required to begin a police investigation] against Meitei Leepun and withdraw the complaint made to the National Human Rights Commission.”
In October 2023, members of Meitei militant groups attacked the house of a former police officer, Brinda Thounaojam, after she criticized Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol. She was made to apologize. Her house was attacked again in December 2023 after she criticized then-Chief Minister Singh.
Police Failure to Protect
Kuki community members have alleged that the police were siding with the Meitei community, did not protect them, and at times even joined the mobs. The Manipur police have denied any bias.
The media have reported numerous cases of violence in which the police failed to act, leading the Supreme Court to intervene. On May 4, 2023, a large group of Meiteis attacked a village in Kangpokpi district, trapping two Kuki men and three women. The mob killed the men and sexually assaulted the women, gang-raping one of them. The Meitei mob also stripped and paraded two of the women. After a video of the attacks emerged in July 2023, the Supreme Court ordered the federal Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate it along with other cases of sexual assault in Manipur.
In October 2023, the investigation concluded that although two of the women and one male victim managed to get inside a police car, “the driver suddenly drove and stopped the vehicle near the violent mob of around 1,000 people,” and that after the crowd took the women, the police drove away “leaving the victims alone with the mob.” The authorities arrested six people in this case, but more than a year later, no charges have been filed against police officers or members of Meitei vigilante groups involved in this incident. The investigative authorities have made even less progress in incidents of sexual violence in other parts of the state that have not received the same level of public scrutiny.
In August 2023, the Supreme Court, accepting concerns over police complicity in abuses, created Special Investigation Teams overseen by senior police officers from outside Manipur, and appointed a former police commissioner from another state to monitor the overall investigation of cases as an added “layer of scrutiny.” The court also formed a committee of three former high court judges to oversee relief and rehabilitation.
The authorities have also failed to protect members of the Meitei community. In November 2024, about 35 armed Kuki militants attacked the camp of the Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary police, and the adjacent police station in Jiribam district, allegedly looking for “Meitei people.” They abducted and killed three women and three children including an 8-month-old infant from the Meitei community, and burned to death two older Meitei men. Security forces had provided shelter to several Meitei families since June 2023, after the violence extended to the area.
Delays and Failures of Access to Justice
In August 2023, the Supreme Court expressed “its dissatisfaction with the tardy pace of investigation.” It also noted the delays in recording witness statements, in making arrests even in cases involving “heinous offences,” and in ensuring medical examinations of victims.
As of December 2024, the 42 special investigation teams created by the Supreme Court had filed charges in only 6 percent of the 3,023 registered cases, including 126 murders, 9 cases of sexual crimes against women, and 2,888 cases of looting, arson, and other property crimes.
Growing Humanitarian Crisis
In government data submitted to the Supreme Court, 57,000 people are registered as living in 361 relief camps, displaced after the violence began. However, this does not account for people who found shelter with relatives, are staying in temporary housing, or have left the state due to the violence.
Meitei and Kuki community members and civil society groups have reported that most Meitei camps are being run with some government support, either sponsored by the local lawmaker or established in government buildings, such as colleges and sports complexes. In contrast, the Kuki camps are mostly housed in church compounds and are dependent on community contributions. “Government support has been sorely lacking,” said a journalist from the Kuki community. “People are surviving on kinship relations and the church.”
Displaced people from Kuki-Zo communities have limited access to proper healthcare, cramped living conditions, inadequate sanitation facilities, daily water shortages, a lack of nutritious food, and loss of livelihoods. A Kuki community organizer in Kangpokpi district said that the government was providing some food rations, “but not regularly or adequately. We need a lot of basic stuff that are being provided by the community.”
Healthcare access has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges for the Kuki Zo, because community members cannot go to Imphal, where the main hospitals are located. “The local hospital is so ill-equipped, we can’t take care of serious illnesses or injuries,” the community organizer in Kangpokpi said. “We have to transport the patients by road to another state, Assam or Nagaland.”
A government health worker who manages a community-run relief camp for 113 Kuki-Zo people in Churachandpur district said: “The government is providing very limited food so we are providing as much as we can and taking help from the church. Without the church we would not have been able to support these internally displaced people.” There is no drinking water in the camp, and people obtain it from a private school nearby, dependent on the school administration’s goodwill. There were two toilets, and an international humanitarian organization built three more. But none of them have piped water.
The 40-year-old Kuki farmer from Kangpokpi district who fled his home in May 2023 with his wife and three children, said: “We are suffering here so much. But I don’t think it is possible for Kukis and Meitei to live alongside each other anymore. We are very scared. We don’t think we will be safe if we return.”
Internet Shutdowns
The authorities shut down the internet in Manipur for over 200 days in 2023, from May to December, saying it was required to stop the spread of misinformation. Following a court order in July 2023, the state government restored broadband services with certain safeguards. But the mobile internet shutdown continued until December, denying access to a majority of the population since 96 percent of people access internet on their mobile phones.
In 2024, the authorities continued to shut down the internet in places affected by violence. “Internet shutdowns are frequent especially when there is escalation,” a professor in Churachandpur district said. “Whenever there is a problem, they blame the internet, not the issue.”
While misinformation played a significant role in instigating violence, including sexual violence, internet bans are not a solution to inadequate law enforcement. They violate multiple human rights, and only cause further harm by restricting access to credible information, with rumors encouraging retaliatory attacks.
A September 2023 fact-finding report from the Editors Guild of India said the internet shutdown had “a dramatic impact on reporting.” Since correspondents were not able to file stories from the hills, the Editors Guild said, the internet ban prevented an alternative perspective, instead vilifying the Kuki Zo:
The internet ban did not yield the expected peace dividends for the state government, as the law and order situation continued to spiral out of control. What was worse was that the narrative began to blame those who did not have a voice in this conflict.
Crackdown on Activists, Media
Following the issuance of the Editors Guild 2023 report, the Manipur police registered a criminal case against the group’s fact-finding team, which had visited Manipur for their research.
Manipur authorities also prosecuted other civil society activists and journalists for independent reporting on the violence.
In July 2023, a court in Manipur summoned an academic and two Kuki activists in cases filed by Meitei activists alleging that their media interviews had promoted enmity between communities. The same month, the Manipur Home Department asked the police to file a criminal case against members of the Zomi Students’ Federation Union, who published “The Inevitable Split: Documents on State sponsored ethnic cleansing in Manipur, 2023,” and to ban further publication of the book.
Manipur police also filed a criminal case against two feminist leaders and an independent advocate in July 2023 for their fact-finding mission, which found that the violence was “state-sponsored.” The charges included sedition, defamation, waging war against India, and promoting enmity between different groups, among others.
In December 2023, the Supreme Court stayed criminal proceedings against the journalist Makepeace Sitlhou after the Manipur police filed a case against her for defamation, criminal conspiracy, and promoting enmity between groups. Sitlhou was targeted for her critical remarks on social media against the Manipur government’s failure to control the violence in the state.
