Kuki Black Day or Naga Black Day: The truth behind 1993-1998 conflict
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Dirinamai Liangchi
Contd from previous issue
Makeshift schools were run under tarpaulin roofs, community kitchens kept the displaced fed, and every Sunday, prayers echoed in the forests, affirming that faith would not yield to fear.
Tapon Villager Shot dead 1997: James Niumai of Tapon Naga village was shot dead by KNF militants on February 27, 1997.
The Massacre at Makui Thebram – September 1997: In yet another horrifying chapter of history, the Kuki militants unleashed unspeakable terror upon Makui Part-3, also known as Makui Thebram, in September 1997. On that fateful day, thousands of Kuki militants surrounded the village and opened indiscriminate fire upon helpless villagers. In the carnage that followed, ten innocent souls were mercilessly butchered.
Today, the epitaphs of those victims lie in ruins on the hills of Makui Thebram, a place where no human dares to tread, haunted by the memory of that tragedy. Among the graves stands one that tells a story of unmatched cruelty: a mother and her six young children were buried together. The children, who had been sleeping soundly in the arms of their mother, were trapped when militants locked the door of their hut and burnt them alive inside.
The hill of Makui Thebram stands as a silent witness to this barbarity, a scar on the land and a wound in the memory of the people that can never be erased.
1997 – A Broader Conflict Ignites
While the Nagas were still reeling under devastation, the year 1997 witnessed a new eruption, this time between the Kukis and the Paites in Churachandpur district. The same militant machinery that had been unleashed against the Nagas turned its fury upon another tribal community. What was once painted as a fight for “survival” was now exposed as a calculated pattern: the use of violence, ethnic cleansing, and the rewriting of victimhood to expand territorial and political claims.
1998: The untold atrocities at the hands of Kuki militants and endured the bitter betrayal of trust by the Manipur Rifles.
Between 1993 and 1998, Makui village endured relentless assaults at the hands of Kuki militants. The village was attacked three times, and its people were ambushed on their way to the fields on six separate occasions. In total, 24 innocent villagers lost their lives to this reign of terror. Tapon Naga village, too, was not spared. It was attacked three times by Kuki militants:
1. September 9, 1993
2. June 17, 1997
3. September 22, 1997
The Infamous Premeditated Ambush of Makui Naga Villagers by Kuki Militants in Collusion with Manipur Rifles, on October 19, 1998.
For five long years, the people of Makui village endured untold suffering, living under constant fear of Kuki militants. In recognition of their plight, the Government of Manipur eventually agreed to provide weekly escorts for the villagers traveling from Makui to Kanglatongbi.
However, behind this assurance of safety was a sinister betrayal. A Kuki bureaucrat within the Manipur government, together with a Commandant Officer (CO) belonging to the Kuki tribe, secretly colluded with Kuki militants to orchestrate a deadly trap.
On the fateful day of October 19, 1998, around 30–40 Makui villagers were made to believe they would be safely escorted by the Manipur Rifles. Instead, they were led straight into an ambush. The betrayal was clear: the CO (the devil in uniform) personally took all the Manipur Rifles jawans with him, leaving behind the truck carrying only Naga villagers with just one escort truck manned by two jawans.
The million-dollar question remains: Why did the CO abandon the vulnerable villagers with minimal protec- tion? Why did he not return with his men to retaliate against the militants and defend the innocent lives left in their hands?
The outcome was tragic beyond words. Ten innocent Makui villagers, including women and children, along with one Manipur Rifles jawan were brutally killed. Their blood stains the hands of that CO, whose betrayal will forever remain one of the darkest chapters of treachery in Manipur’s history.
On the final day of judgment, before God and history, that CO will be called to answer for this heinous crime and for the innocent lives lost under his deliberate betrayal.
This horrific chapter (October 19, 1998) brought the Kuki–Naga conflict to a complete halt.
Between 1993 and 1998, the Nagas of Kangpokpi lived under siege, their villages burned, their people tortured, their faith in peace betrayed. Yet, while the Kukis proclaim “Black Day” every September 13, history tells a different story: the conflict was not born of victimhood but of calculated aggression, met only with desperate self-defense. The so-called Kuki Black Day is, in truth, a Naga Black Day, a day that recalls the attempt to wipe out the Nagas of Kangpokpi, a day when aggression wore the mask of victimhood, and a day that still stands as a warning against distortion of history. Ukhrul Times
Contd from previous issue
Makeshift schools were run under tarpaulin roofs, community kitchens kept the displaced fed, and every Sunday, prayers echoed in the forests, affirming that faith would not yield to fear.
Tapon Villager Shot dead 1997: James Niumai of Tapon Naga village was shot dead by KNF militants on February 27, 1997.
The Massacre at Makui Thebram – September 1997: In yet another horrifying chapter of history, the Kuki militants unleashed unspeakable terror upon Makui Part-3, also known as Makui Thebram, in September 1997. On that fateful day, thousands of Kuki militants surrounded the village and opened indiscriminate fire upon helpless villagers. In the carnage that followed, ten innocent souls were mercilessly butchered.
Today, the epitaphs of those victims lie in ruins on the hills of Makui Thebram, a place where no human dares to tread, haunted by the memory of that tragedy. Among the graves stands one that tells a story of unmatched cruelty: a mother and her six young children were buried together. The children, who had been sleeping soundly in the arms of their mother, were trapped when militants locked the door of their hut and burnt them alive inside.
The hill of Makui Thebram stands as a silent witness to this barbarity, a scar on the land and a wound in the memory of the people that can never be erased.
1997 – A Broader Conflict Ignites
While the Nagas were still reeling under devastation, the year 1997 witnessed a new eruption, this time between the Kukis and the Paites in Churachandpur district. The same militant machinery that had been unleashed against the Nagas turned its fury upon another tribal community. What was once painted as a fight for “survival” was now exposed as a calculated pattern: the use of violence, ethnic cleansing, and the rewriting of victimhood to expand territorial and political claims.
1998: The untold atrocities at the hands of Kuki militants and endured the bitter betrayal of trust by the Manipur Rifles.
Between 1993 and 1998, Makui village endured relentless assaults at the hands of Kuki militants. The village was attacked three times, and its people were ambushed on their way to the fields on six separate occasions. In total, 24 innocent villagers lost their lives to this reign of terror. Tapon Naga village, too, was not spared. It was attacked three times by Kuki militants:
1. September 9, 1993
2. June 17, 1997
3. September 22, 1997
The Infamous Premeditated Ambush of Makui Naga Villagers by Kuki Militants in Collusion with Manipur Rifles, on October 19, 1998.
For five long years, the people of Makui village endured untold suffering, living under constant fear of Kuki militants. In recognition of their plight, the Government of Manipur eventually agreed to provide weekly escorts for the villagers traveling from Makui to Kanglatongbi.
However, behind this assurance of safety was a sinister betrayal. A Kuki bureaucrat within the Manipur government, together with a Commandant Officer (CO) belonging to the Kuki tribe, secretly colluded with Kuki militants to orchestrate a deadly trap.
On the fateful day of October 19, 1998, around 30–40 Makui villagers were made to believe they would be safely escorted by the Manipur Rifles. Instead, they were led straight into an ambush. The betrayal was clear: the CO (the devil in uniform) personally took all the Manipur Rifles jawans with him, leaving behind the truck carrying only Naga villagers with just one escort truck manned by two jawans.
The million-dollar question remains: Why did the CO abandon the vulnerable villagers with minimal protec- tion? Why did he not return with his men to retaliate against the militants and defend the innocent lives left in their hands?
The outcome was tragic beyond words. Ten innocent Makui villagers, including women and children, along with one Manipur Rifles jawan were brutally killed. Their blood stains the hands of that CO, whose betrayal will forever remain one of the darkest chapters of treachery in Manipur’s history.
On the final day of judgment, before God and history, that CO will be called to answer for this heinous crime and for the innocent lives lost under his deliberate betrayal.
This horrific chapter (October 19, 1998) brought the Kuki–Naga conflict to a complete halt.
Between 1993 and 1998, the Nagas of Kangpokpi lived under siege, their villages burned, their people tortured, their faith in peace betrayed. Yet, while the Kukis proclaim “Black Day” every September 13, history tells a different story: the conflict was not born of victimhood but of calculated aggression, met only with desperate self-defense. The so-called Kuki Black Day is, in truth, a Naga Black Day, a day that recalls the attempt to wipe out the Nagas of Kangpokpi, a day when aggression wore the mask of victimhood, and a day that still stands as a warning against distortion of history. Ukhrul Times