Meitei Alliance demands impartial investigation
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 14 2026: The Meitei Alliance has condemned the brutal killing of three Thadou Church leaders - Reverend Dr Vumthang Sitlhou, Reverend Kaigoulun Lhouvum, and Pastor Paogoulen Sitlhou - in a terrorist attack in Kangpokpi district yesterday.

The Alliance, in a press note, also condemned the injuries caused to five others.

Rev Vumthang Sitlhou, a two-time general secretary of the Manipur Baptist Convention and the president of the Thadou Baptist Association, was widely known as a man of peace and a peace negotiator, it said.

The Meitei Alliance demanded a thorough and impartial investigation to identify the terrorist group or groups behind the ambush.

Taking serious note of the repeated inability of both the State and Central Governments to protect innocent lives, maintain law and order, and take effective steps towards restoring peace in Manipur, the Alliance urged the Government to book the perpetrators under the rule of law, and declare the group or groups responsible as outlawed terrorist organisations.

The Alliance further stated that the ambush that killed the three Church leaders, is not only an attack on innocent lives but also an assault on the values of peace, reconciliation, and harmonious coexistence in Manipur.

Ever since the Community Understanding Programme held on 7 March 2025 in New Delhi between the Meitei Alliance and Thadou Inpi Manipur, the Alliance has consistently conveyed to the people that the Thadous stand for the integrity of Manipur and for peaceful and harmonious coexistence among all communities in the State, it also said.

The Alliance has also repeatedly stated that all Thadous must not be identified as Kukis, and that armed Kuki militants and their proxies, many of whom are led by foreign-origin Nationals, represent only a subset and must not be allowed to define or represent the entire Thadou community, it added.

The Meitei Alliance further reminded the people that it was the Thadous who had warned the Government of Manipur as far back as 1987 about the emergence of a Kuki Nationalist community called AKT, predicting bloodshed.

The Alliance said that another Thadou leader Nehkam Jomhao (59), chairman of the Thadou Literature Society, Assam, was brutally murdered by Kuki militants on 30 August 2025 for attending a Community Understanding Programme in Imphal aimed at bringing peace to the State.

The Meitei Alliance conveyed its condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for the departed souls to rest in peace.

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