UNC calls for frontier security review
Source: The Sangai Express
Senapati, July 23 2026:
The United Naga Council (UNC) has called upon the Ministry of Home Affairs to review the security deployment along the Kamjong sector of Indo-Myanmar border.
The UNC submitted a representation to the Union Home Minister through the Deputy Commissioner, Senapati district on July 22, 2026 for strategic security assessment highlighting systemic violations of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) framework and the case for a legitimacy-based frontier security architecture in Manipur.
The Government of India's Constitutional mandate to secure the Indo-Myanmar border has been tested, and found wanting at the Kamjong sector twice within two months, the UNC said.
It cited the cases of incursion by Myanmar-based KNA-B militants and burning down the Naga villages of Z Choro, Namlee-Wanglee and Kaka on May 7, 2026 and the attack on Huimin Thana and Kherongram by Kuki militants operating in coordination with the KNA-B on July 1, 2026 .
Repelling any single incursion is a tactical achievement, preventing its recurrence at the same frontier point is a strategic one - and by that measure, the current posture has not yet succeeded, the UNC asserted.
The Naga civil organisation has also reiterated its demand for immediate termination of the SoO agreement with all Kuki militant groups.
Recalling the abduction of 18 Naga civilians from Leilon Vaiphei village on May 13, 2026 by a coordinated network involving village authorities and cadres of the Kuki National Front-President (KNF-P), a constituent of the United People's Front (UPF), currently operating under the SoO framework, and subsequent murder of six Naga hostages whose mutilated bodies were recovered on June 10, 2026, the UNC has asserted that the capacity of SoO-protected cadres to commit offences of this gravity with apparent impunity is sustained, in part, by documented failures within the State's own security apparatus.
A formal criminal complaint identified Thanginlen Vaiphei, serving Manipur Police personnel at Leimakhong police station, as an active participant in the handover of the 18 Naga hostages to UPF/KNF-P cadres, it said.
When cadres of an organisation formally party to SoO agreement can carry out abduction and murder with the alleged assistance of serving police personnel, the resulting failure is not confined to one station or one district but exposes that the internal security apparatus responsible for enforcing SoO ground rules is operationally compromised, it asserted.
The continued extension of the SoO framework's protections to groups documented in violation of its ground rules does not preserve peace, it defers a reckoning while eroding the framework's credibility for every party to it, and it stands in tension with the political logic underlying the August 3, 2015 Indo-Naga Framework Agreement, the UNC said.
The Naga civil organisation further called upon the Union Home Minister for formal designation of the KNF-P as a terrorist organisation.
Another demand raised by the UNC through its representation is the removal of Nemcha Kipgen from the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
The UNC urged the Union Home Minister to promptly advise the Governor of Manipur to exercise his Constitutional authority under Article 164(1) of the Constitution of India to secure the immediate removal of Nemcha Kipgen from the Council of Ministers.
"In light of the complicity to the Leilon Vaiphei incident, her continuance in office gives rise to an apparent conflict of interest, undermines public confidence in the impartial administration of justice, and risks compromising the credibility of any investigation into the matter", it said.
The UNC has also demanded arrest and prosecution, under the UA(P)A, of the KNF-P cadres and Leilon Vaiphei village authorities identified as Lalboi Vaiphei, Haopu Khaute and Thangkhulen Khaute, together with the complicit police personnel.
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