The Manipur government on March 10 decided to withdraw from the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement signed with the Kuki National Amy and the Zoumi Revolutionary Front, two tribal underground organisations in Manipur.
Key points
- The state government claimed that a protest rally organised recently, defying Section 144, was influenced by the two groups, Kuki National Army (KNA) and Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA).
- The Manipur Government has been destroying poppy plants and evicting settlers in the reserved and protected forests. The large-scale destructions of poppy plants and evictions are not to the liking of these two outfits, the crucial cabinet meeting felt.
- The SoO pact was signed on August 22, 2008, with the primary objective of initiating political dialogue.
- While the period of the Suspension of Operation agreement is one year, it is extendable according to the progress of its implementation.
- Under the SoO agreement, many KNA and ZRF militants had come overground. However, the Union Government is yet to come to the negotiating table.
- While the Naga movement is the country’s longest-running insurgency, underground Kuki groups, too, have fought the Indian government for an ‘independent Kuki homeland’, spread across Manipur.
- The Kuki insurgency gained momentum after ethnic clashes with the Nagas of Manipur in the early 1990s, with the Kuki arming themselves against Naga aggression.
- There are nearly 30 Kuki insurgent groups in Manipur, of which 25 are under tripartite Suspension of Operations (SoO) with the Government of India and the state.
- As many as 17 are under the umbrella group Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and eight are under the United People’s Front (UPF).
