Reacting to the escalating violence, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Committee on Tribal unity (CoTU) have declared 24-hour shutdown in all Kuki-Zo areas (from midnight of January 3 to Jan 4) to protest against the alleged atrocities of the Meitei state forces and to demand their removal from all Kuki-Zo districts.
Young men and women were seen shouting slogans as they marched in from various places, many of them holding placards protesting the killing of two students who had gone missing in July and pictures of whose dead bodies have surfaced recently sparking outrage
The clarification came after a video went viral where an RAF personnel was allegedly heard stating, 'It's not our community, do whatever you want' made rounds on social media inviting widespread condemnation
The protesters claim the arrested youths were Meitei village defence volunteers protecting their villages amid the 20-week-old unrest between Meiteis and Kukis that has killed at least 176 people and displaced 67,000