The Working Committee of Kuki Civil Society Organisations (WCKCSOs)-Ukhrul has set a 24-hour deadline for district administrations in Imphal East, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul to halt what it calls the systematic confiscation and burning of essential supplies headed for Kuki-Zo areas, warning that a three-day counter-blockade will follow if nothing changes.

In a statement issued on July 22, the body said drivers ferrying essential commodities into Kuki-Zo inhabited pockets have faced repeated seizures and intimidation, most recently in Wunghon, Saijang and Sokvao, despite assurances a district official is reported to have given at a closed-door meeting in late June. It put the value of lost essential goods at roughly Rs 10 lakh and named the officer-in-charge of Yaingangpokpi police station as complicit in the alleged confiscation — an allegation Sentinel NE has not been able to independently verify.

The committee framed its ultimatum against a backdrop of asymmetry: Kuki-Zo groups, it said, have escorted hundreds of vehicles safely through their territory even as a separate blockade on National Highway-2 near Senapati and Kanglatongbi, which it attributed to Naga and Meitei organisations, has throttled traffic for close to a month without state or central intervention. If the confiscations do not stop within 24 hours, the WCKCSOs said, it will impose a strict three-day economic blockade from midnight on July 23, with responsibility for the fallout resting on the administrations it accuses of inaction.

The warning follows a related move earlier in the week, when the same body withdrew its assurance of free movement on National Highway-202 at Wunghon, citing an existing blockade there that it said Tangkhul women’s groups were enforcing against food and essential supplies bound for Kuki areas — underscoring how tightly disputes over highway access and relief movement are now intertwined in Manipur’s hill districts.

Sentinel NE could not independently confirm, as of publication, whether the threatened three-day blockade actually took effect at midnight on July 23 or whether the administrations intervened beforehand. This account rests on the WCKCSOs-Ukhrul’s own statement as carried by regional press; no independent, on-ground verification of the alleged confiscation incidents was available at the time of writing.