A coalition of Delhi-based Meitei civil society and academic organisations on Thursday demanded the arrest of those behind a bomb attack at the house of a Border Security Force (BSF) soldier in Manipur’s Bishnupur that killed his two children earlier this week.
The children, Oinam Tomthin, 5, and his infant sister Oinam Yaisana, 5 months, were asleep when the blast struck their home in Bishnupur’s Tronglaobi in the early hours of April 7.
The organisations including the Meitei Heritage Society, Delhi Manipur Society (DeMas), TMP Manipur, NUPI, and the Delhi Manipur Academics Fraternity alleged Kuki militants were responsible for the attack.
While the police said they have arrested three suspected United Kuki National Army (UKNA) insurgents in operations following the bomb attack, they didn’t give details on whether the arrests are directly connected with the Bishnupur terror attack case.
“We demand immediate arrest and exemplary action against the perpetrators, whom we believe are Kuki militants,” Oinam Babuton, the children’s grandfather, told reporters. “There has to be an end to Meitei civilians being attacked and killed by these militants.”
The civil society organisations shared several prior incidents that they attributed to Kuki militants, among them the Jiribam killings of November 2024, in which six members of a Meitei family – three women and three children, including a 10-month-old – were kidnapped and killed, and the January 2026 abduction and killing of Mayanglangbam Rishikanta in Churachandpur.
In various operations launched in the aftermath of the Tronglaobi incident, in nearby areas of Churachandpur District, 03 (three) cadres suspected to be of UKNA were arrested with recovery of arms and ammunition as follows:
a)Jampao Kuki
b)Sasang
c)Paulallem Vaiphai
The following… pic.twitter.com/aSzWFSJaS4— Manipur Police (@manipur_police) April 8, 2026
The Meitei civil society organisations demanded that all Kuki insurgent groups be disarmed before any peace negotiations are started, and called the current dialogue process ineffective.
“No peace deal will ever succeed by holding an entire community hostage,” they said in a statement.
The Meitei-Kuki ethnic violence that began in May 2023 has claimed over 260 lives and internally displaced 50,000.
