DMCC refutes PUCL point by point
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 29 2025: The Independent People's Tribunal Report on Manipur conflict continues to court backlash with the Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee today calling out the PUCL for "distorting the sequence of events" and "engineering a one-sided narrative" .

The DMCC has accused the PUCL of omitting and ignoring cases of sexual assault against Meitei women as "rumours".

The "selective and one-sided" report released by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is an "engineered narrative that projects Meitei as the perpetrator community and the Chin-Kuki as victim." Even facts were framed and narrated with prejudice, and it downplays the suffering of the Meeteis.

Worse, it appears to justify brutal attacks against Meetei as a "reaction" to alleged burning of a gate, said the DMCC in a statement, released after a press conference held at Delhi.

The DMCC members held the press conference at the Press Club of India, New Delhi.

Dr Seram Rojesh convenor of DMCC, and women's rights activist Elizabeth attended the press meet.

The DMCC's "response" to the PUCL's report has been reproduced below with some minor changes.

All the statements are of the DMCC .

Violence did not start in Imphal

Armed Kuki mob attacked Meetei villages and started the violence in Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal.

Meetei houses and families were attacked in Torbung and Kangvai by mobs led by heavily armed Kuki militant groups on May 3, 2023 .

The tribunal failed to identify these armed groups or investigate their role.

We continue to place faith in the Justice Lamba Commission to establish the facts and reveal who triggered the violence against Meeteis.

Several testimonies by Meetei victims have been ignored or misrepresented.

Survivors clearly stated that violence began around Torbung Bangla on 3rd May 2023, when Kuki mobs carrying weapons suddenly began torching Meetei houses.

In Phougakchao Meetei village, homes were set on fire by Kuki mobs between 3 pm and 4 pm, forcing families to flee (p166-172) .

One old Meetei senior citizen was brutally kicked and beaten by Kuki mob on 3rd May 2023 in the afternoon and the video of it went viral on social media.

(The pages quoted here are of the PUCL's report) .

Yet, in contradiction, the PUCL report concluded that the violence mainly started in Imphal valley, thus distorting the sequence of events and relying on the testimonies of Assam Rifles (p.162) .

Burning of controversial gate at Churachandpur

The PUCL's report also makes unsubstantiated claims by attributing the burning of the controversial gate in Churachandpur to Meetei, without any credible investigation or evidence.

Worse still, it goes beyond blaming Meetei organisations - it is written in a manner that appears to justify the brutal attacks against Meetei as a so-called "reaction" to the alleged burning of the gate (p158-165) .

This narrative not only distorts the truth but dangerously legitimizes violence against Meetei villagers at Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal districts on May 3, 2023.The report is completely silent on the longstanding separatist agenda of "Zalengam" which is similar to Nazi ideology to form an exclusive "Kukiland" by Chin-Kuki armed groups after "ethnic cleansing" of the Meeteis and acquiring new territory from Manipur.

To this effect, May 3, 2023 attacks on Meeteis were implemented by Kuki armed groups.

Meetei women's lives matter

On page 692 of the report, PUCL deliberately omitted testimonies of sexual assault committed against Meetei women, while giving detailed accounts of sexual assault cases of Kuki women.

Sexual assault is a crime, whether the victim is Kuki, Meetei, or from any other community.

On May 3, 2023, a Meetei woman, a mother of three children, was brutally gang-raped by five Kuki men until she lost consciousness.

This was not a rumour, as mentioned in another chapter of the PUCL report, but a documented crime.

The FIR, medical records, and the victim's own testimony were submitted to tribunal members.

Yet, while the report dismissed it elsewhere as "rumour," it simultaneously gave elaborate narration of sexual assault on Kuki women as fact.

Such selective representation is not only a betrayal of the Meetei victims but also a dangerous distortion of truth and denial of justice.

The report further ignored the rape and brutal killing of three other Meetei women by armed Kuki groups.

Meetei women's lives matter.

Their pain cannot be reduced to "rumours" or erased from history.

Systematic targeting of Meetei groups

Since May 3, 2023, Kuki militants have launched more than 300 attacks on Meetei villages, killing over 190 Meeteis and abducting at least 31 people who remain missing.

None of these is reflected in the PUCL report.

The report maintains silence on the role of well-armed Kuki groups that carried out repeated assaults "under the protection and patronage of State and Central forces under the aegis of Government of India" .

Kukis' attacks on Meetei Temples

Meetei sentiments have been repeatedly hurt through deliberate and systematic attacks on "our sacred sites" by Kuki groups since 2015 .

In 2020, the Kounu Temple at Koubru Leikha in Kangpokpi was burnt down.

In 2021, a Christian Cross was forcefully erected on the Koubru, the holiest and most secret place of the Meeteis, an act of provocation and desecration.

On April 27, 2023, just days before the violence erupted, the Umang Lai deity of the Sanamahi faith was set on fire by a Kuki mob in Churachandpur.

During the ongoing conflict, 178 Umang Lai Temples and more than 4,000 household with Sanamahi shrines have been destroyed in a calculated attempt to erase the faith and identity of the Meetei people.

Not a single Kuki Church was burnt by Meeteis before May 3, 2023, yet the PUCL's report conveniently blames Meeteis while completely suppressing the record of Kuki assaults on indigenous Meetei religion.

"This PUCL's one-sided report is designed, framed and contextualised to justify continued Kuki militant aggression against the Meetei community.

It lacks integrity, fairness, and objectivity.

Instead of contributing to peace and justice, it risks deepening divisions by ignoring the scale of atrocities committed against Meeteis," said the DMCC .

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