GUWAHATI: A member of the Naga Village Guard (NVG) was killed during a gunfight with a CoBRA team of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Manipur’s Noney district on Wednesday, prompting a Naga organisation to announce a shutdown of national highways, railway and national projects in certain Naga areas.
Five persons were injured, two of them reportedly CRPF personnel. The CoBRA team had launched an operation at Bitiang village leading to the gunbattle.
The Naga Village Guard-Eastern Command confirmed the killing of the Naga Village Guard member and injuries to three other members during the “armed assault” by the COBRA unit and the insurgent group “Zeliangrong United Front-Jenchui” (ZUF-J). The organisation criticised the ZUF-J for allegedly colluding with Indian security forces and “spilling the blood of own brethren.”
“The members of the NVG stationed at Bitiang village are in defensive line against the Kuki militants and narco-terrorists after the murder of six innocent Liangmai Naga civilians at Leilon Vaiphei, whose mutilated bodies were found on the 10th of June, 2026,” the organisation said in a statement.
The statement further said that there was no rationale behind the armed attack carried out by the CoBRA unit against the “civil volunteers keeping vigil and guarding the victimised Naga villages from the regular onslaught of the marauding Kukis.”
Meanwhile, the Working Committee, JTC-Manipur, condemned the “unprovoked and cowardly attack” against the NVG members.
“These brave young men, who stand as the last line of defence for their people and their ancestral territory, were viciously targeted while guarding their own land against occupation and violence,” the Committee said in a statement.
“This aggression against peace-loving Naga civilians, who have taken up arms only to protect their families and homelands in the absence of state protection, is a blatant act of state-sponsored terrorism that cannot and will not be tolerated,” the statement added.
The Committee warned that the shutdown would remain in full force until Central government took decisive actions to arrest those involved, cease “all hostile operations against our defenseless Naga villages and people, and restore justice.”
