IMPHAL: Alleging that Kuki militants based in Myanmar were responsible for “attacking” Naga villages on May 7, the United Naga Council (UNC) has demanded “immediate and decisive military action by the Government of India to neutralize the foreign aggressors and restore the sanctity of the international Indo-Myanmar border”.
According to the UNC, at around 4 am on May 7, more than one hundred “heavily armed terrorists breached the international Indo-Myanmar border from Myanmar and executed al premeditated assault upon the Naga villages of Namlee, Wanglee, Ashang Khullen (KAKA), and Z Choro”.
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Regarding these incidents, the UNC demanded “urgent deployment of Manipur state forces, in whom the people repose their sole trust”. The UNC further demanded emergency relief for displaced women, children, and the elderly now sheltering in jungles, and a high-level, time-bound inquiry into how about 100 militants crossed the border undetected following a security visit on May 6, 2026, with culpability established and accountability enforced”. The UNC then declared that it shall not remain silent while Naga ancestral territory along the international Indo-Myanmar border is violated and its people rendered refugees in their “own homeland”.
The UNC condemned the “barbaric cross-border invasion” perpetrated by the Myanmar based armed Kuki militants, Kuki National Army-Burma (KNA-B) and unprovoked attacked carried out by Kuki militants operating under Suspension of Operation (SoO) on May 7, 2026 at international Indo-Myanmar border and Sinakeithei village respectively. The UNC also said the Sinakeithei village was attacked from the Lungthar hill range where heavily armed Kuki mercenaries are positioned unleashing heavy rounds of gun fire injuring many civilians at approximately 12:30 pm on May 7. The UNC said these villages are the ancestral homes of Naga tribes, not of a single community, with Aloyo and Choro in particular sustaining diverse Naga populations.
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The UNC said that, employing sophisticated weaponry, the assailants fired indiscriminately upon civilians and set dwelling houses ablaze. Women, children, and the elderly have been forced to flee into the deep jungles, abandoned without food, shelter, or medical care, it alleged. This constituted a brazen assault upon “India sovereignty” and a direct violation of the lives and dignity of indigenous Naga peoples, the UNC also said.
The UNC then “unequivocally condemned the egregious failure and deliberate inaction” of central security forces deployed along the International Indo-Myanmar border. “That about hundreds foreign armed militants could traverse the across border and attack villages in less than twenty-four hours after central forces inspected the area on May 6, 2026 is indefensible”, it alleged, adding, “The forces stood as mute spectators while our villages burned”. It further said, “This dereliction has extinguished the Naga people’s trust and confidence in central forces”. The UNC further condemned the “Government of India’s stoic silence in the face of foreign armed aggression”. It added that when indigenous citizens are fired upon and displaced by foreign militants on Indian territory, silence is tantamount to complicity.
The UNC then placed on record that out of the thousand refugees earlier languishing in Naga villages, there are still around 300 Kukis who are taking refuge at Namlee-Wanglee. “It is, however, surprising to note that children of these refugees are enrolled as PDF/KNA(B) and involved in the act of arson at Namlee-Wanglee and Z Choro. Despite bearing this humanitarian burden with restraint, the Naga people assert that the present attack is not a refugee crisis but a calculated cross-border invasion of Naga ancestral land”, the UNC added.
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The UNC then said it took strong exception over the “selective protection and biased enforcement of the state machinery, which is evident in destroying Naga village guards’ bunkers and shelter shed and intimidation to the Naga villagers in Shokvao, Sharkaphung, Leingangching (Laho), New heaven, Ringui and Sirarakong, while guarding the Kuki villages without touching their bunkers by the central security forces especially by sections of Assam Rifles and others”. “This apparent double standard of the Indian Army, explicit collusion with one community and masquerading as the protector and sentinel of the hills people is highly unacceptable and raises serious questions behind the actions”, the UNC also said. Moreover, the UNC said the government’s “indifference attitude” is alarming that so far no security measures have been taken up by the government in and around the vulnerable Naga villages in foothills and Kangpokpi areas despite repeated appeals from the concerned villages and their parent bodies.
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The Naga body then cautioned that the prevailing “phenomenal aggression Kuki mercenaries backed by the government machinery, armed with sophisticated weapons and terrorizing Naga villages” is not an isolated case but a calculated and coordinated attack over the indigents of the land which will have a far reaching ramification.
For decades, according to the UNC, the Nagas have stood as sentinels of India’s frontier. “If foreign militants can strike us on Indian soil with impunity, it indicts the security of the nation and the constitutional guarantees extended to Scheduled Tribes”. The Government of India must act now, further demanded the UNC, adding, “If the Government of India and the Ministry of Home Affairs are unable to guarantee the protection of Naga civilians and their properties, then the continued deployment of security forces in the Indo-Myanmar border be removed, the Naga people will take their own course to defend and safeguard the security and Naga ancestral land”.