New Delhi
March 8, 2025
The Kuki-Zo Women’s Forum (KZWF) has issued a strong condemnation of what it describes as a brutal and inhumane assault on Kuki-Zo women and peaceful protesters by Indian armed forces in Manipur.
The incident, which occurred on International Women’s Day, has sparked outrage, with the forum accusing the government of India of using excessive force against tribal women instead of upholding justice and human rights.
According to the KZWF, the security forces resorted to unprovoked violence, lathi-charging women who were peacefully protesting for their fundamental rights. The situation escalated when live bullets were fired into the crowd, leading to the killing of Lalgoun Singsit of Ward No. 2, Keithelmanbi, and critically injuring sixteen others. “These are not the actions of a democratic state,” the statement read, “but those of a repressive regime determined to silence the truth.”
The forum emphasized that this incident is part of a broader pattern of violence against the Kuki-Zo community, which has endured months of ethnic persecution, forced displacement, and state-backed brutality. “For nearly a year, our women have been paraded naked and gang-raped, our villages burned, our men beheaded,” the statement continued. “And today, when they stood up for their rights, they were met with batons and bullets instead of justice.”
KZWF accused the Indian government of failing its democratic principles, alleging that the state rewards perpetrators of violence while punishing victims. The organization further labeled the crackdown as part of an “ethnic purge masquerading as governance,” calling on the international community to recognize and act against what it termed as an apartheid system targeting Kuki-Zo lives.
“We will not forget. We will not forgive. No government, no army, no act of state terror can erase the truth or break the will of a people who refuse to be trampled under the boots of fascism,” the forum declared in its concluded.
