GUWAHATI: Khodang, a Kuki village in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, was resettled on Thursday, exactly three years after residents were displaced during the ethnic violence that erupted on May 3, 2023.
MLA Paolienlal Haokip inaugurated the village for habitation by cutting a ribbon. Locals said this was the first Kuki village in Churachandpur district to be resettled, and praised the MLA and district officials for facilitating the move.
Khodang lies near the buffer zone bordering Churachandpur, Kakching and Bishnupur districts. While Churachandpur is Kuki-majority, Kakching and Bishnupur are predominantly Meitei-majority districts.
On May 28, 2023, during the peak of the ethnic violence, Khodang was attacked and most houses in the village were burnt down. Residents fled and took shelter in a relief camp in Churachandpur town.
“Around 180 to 200 people from 45 families lived in the village. We rebuilt our houses with Rs 1.7 lakh allocated to each family by the central government,” Khodang village secretary M Sonsei Haokip told this newspaper.
Only male members of a few families moved into their houses on Thursday, while women and children are expected to return gradually.
The ethnic violence in Manipur has left over 250 people dead and displaced an estimated 60,000 others. A large number of the displaced are still living in relief camps.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Makhan Naga village in Kangpokpi district on Thursday, Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said investigations were underway to arrest those involved in the abduction of six Naga villagers. He confirmed the arrest of four suspects and assured that the missing villagers would be traced soon.
On May 13, three church leaders from the Thadou community were killed in an ambush in Kangpokpi district. Later that day, different groups abducted more than 38 Kuki and Naga individuals from different locations.
Two days later, 14 Nagas and 14 Kukis were released by their captors. Naga organisations alleged that six more Nagas continued to remain in captivity of Kuki groups, while Kuki organisations claimed 14 abducted Kukis were still missing.
