UKHRUL: The Khanuithot-Khon, Voice of the Naga Youth, has issued a rebuttal to ‘Kuki Militants-sponsored Civil Society Organisations’, stating that claims without identification are complicity and denial without evidence is deflection.
Following the fatal ambush on NH-202, near TM Kasom village in Ukhrul District, that claimed the lives of two Tangkhul Naga civilians, the Kuki CSO Working Committee, Ukhrul, and the Kuki-Zo Council have issued statements denying the involvement of their communities.
The Khanuithot-Khon, countering the Kuki civil bodies, stated that the ‘Kuki Militants-sponsored Kuki CSO Working Committee and Kuki-Zo Council’s statement demands scrutiny not for what it says, but for what it carefully omits.’
Also read | SDSA Alleges Kuki Provocation Behind Clashes, Firing and Militant Presence Reported
The Khanuithot-Khon’s rebuttal reads:
1. The Moral Bankruptcy of Blaming the Victim’s Voice
Two unarmed Tangkhul Naga civilians, Lt. SW. Chinaoshang and Lt. Yaruingam Vashum, were gunned down in broad daylight on NH-202. They were traveling home. The TNL President spoke the truth of the community’s grief and named those responsible based on ground realities and victim testimonies. The Kuki militants-sponsored Kuki CSOs’ response? Not assistance in finding the killers. Not a condemnation of the specific armed groups operating with impunity. An FIR demand against the man who dared to speak. This is not a pursuit of justice. It is the silencing of mourning. It is an assault on free speech dressed in legal costume. It reveals a leadership more concerned with protecting narrative than protecting lives.
Also read | Shutdown in Naga Areas Sparks Tension at T. Khullen; Stone Pelting, Vehicle Vandalised
2. The Political Calculus of Deflection
The demand for an FIR against the TNL President serves one purpose: to shift national attention away from the blood on NH-202. While the public focuses on a manufactured controversy over “dangerous misinformation,” the real question goes unasked. Who fired the sniper rounds? Whose INSAS or M-16 rifles were used? From which illegal settlement did the attack originate? The Kuki CSO statement offers no answers because answers lead directly to SoO camps and illegal settlements under their political umbrella. Deflection is not innocence. It is tactical evasion.
3. The Legal Absurdity of the FIR Demand
Under Indian law, a citizen has the fundamental right to petition the state for justice and to name suspected perpetrators based on available evidence. The TNL President exercised that right. To seek his criminalization for doing so is not merely frivolous. It is an abuse of legal process intended to intimidate community leadership into silence. If the Kuki militants sponsor CSO believes the allegations are false, the remedy is not an FIR against the accuser. The remedy is to cooperate with investigators, produce the numbered weapons inventory from the Soo camps, and identify whose cadres were unaccounted for on 18 April 2026. Silence on this front while demanding legal action against the victim’s voice is not a defence. It is an admission.
Also read | Nagaland Gaonburah Federation Cannot Claim Moral or Historical Authority to Speak for Nagas: GNF
4. The Evidentiary Vacuum of “Government-Recognised Villages.”
The Kuki militants-sponsored CSOs, like the Kuki-Zo Councils, claim that Kuki villages in Ukhrul are “government-recognised and backed by valid records.” Produce them. Show the land titles. Show the pattas. Show the court orders establishing independent Kuki ownership over any contested foothills settlement. The Tangkhul Naga side has produced Civil Case No. 276 of 1939-40. Miscellaneous Case No. 232 of 1952-53. The 1980 reaffirmation agreement. The Gauhati High Court proceedings of 1983. The present Hill House Tax records. Where is the equivalent documentary chain from the Kuki side? A claim without a document is not a record. It is the Kuki ancestral lies. Must defend.
5. The SoO Shield and the Illegal Settlement Launch Pads
The attack originated from the direction of Mongkot Chepu and Yaolen, illegal Kukl settlements from which fatal rounds have been fired repeatedly. These settlements sit in proximity to designated SoO camps. The pattern is established: cadres leave camps, attack Naga villages or civilian convoys, and retreat to the safety of these settlements or camps. The Suspension of Operations agreement, intended as a peace measure, has become a shield for impunity. The weapons used are numbered and recorded. The perpetrators are identifiable. The failure to identify them is not an investigative difficulty. It is deliberate complicity dressed as administrative neutrality.
6. The Unanswered Questions the Kuki CSO Must Address
If the Kuki militant-sponsored Kuki CSOs genuinely seek peace and truth, let them answer the following:
1. Which SoO camp’s weapons inventory shows unaccounted or matching ballistics for April the 18th ambush?
2. Which cadres were absent from designated camps during the hours of the attack? 3. Why have illegal settlements at Mongkot Chepu and Yaolen, from which attacks have repeatedly originated, not been dismantled?
Also read | Nagas of Manipur Unite in Solidarity Amid Repeated Attacks; To Impose Three-Day Total Shutdown; NSF Condemns
7. The Verdict of Silence
The Kuki CSO statement condemns violence in the abstract but refuses to name its perpetrators in the specific. It demands legal action against a community leader while offering no cooperation to find the killers of two unarmed civilians. It claims “valid records” while producing none. It speaks of peace while its political allies demand the relocation of entire Naga communities to create a contiguous territory. This is not a peace statement. It is a public relations exercise designed to buy time while facts on the ground are altered by violence.
We are closely observing your modus operandi in making claims and counterclaims on behalf of Kuki militants. You had already issued a statement denying involvement while the victims were still lying on NH-202.
The blood of Lt. Chinaoshang and Lt. Yaruingam demands more than a press release. It demands truth. It demands accountability. It demands that the numbered weapons be tracked and the killers named. Until the Kuki CSOs provide those answers, their words are worthless, and their condemnation is a complicity by another name.