2 Kuki women killed as gunmen attack Leisangphai village in Manipur, India

Two Kuki women were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday afternoon (September 15, 2026) in Leisangphai village in Manipur’s Naga-majority Tamenglong district, officials confirmed.

The attack occurred around 3 p.m. Phalneichong (also known as Chonga Sitlhou), 78, was collecting firewood when the assailants opened fire. Kimjalhing (also known as Kimneo Singson), 28, who had returned home after completing a nursing course to help her parents with farming, was killed at the same location.

The incident came less than 48 hours after the September 13 killings of four Kuki-Zo civilians, including two women, in Tamenglong and the neighbouring Naga-dominated Noney district. Those earlier attacks were alleged to have been carried out by Naga extremists. On August 27, four Naga civilians were killed in the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district in an attack attributed to Kuki armed groups.

The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) condemned the latest killings, describing them as part of an “unacceptable and alarming pattern” of attacks on Kuki-Zo civilians that could no longer be treated as isolated incidents. The council said the killings, reportedly involving cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN-IM and the Zeliangrong United Front (Kamson) or ZUF-K, raised concerns about efforts to terrorise and displace Kuki-Zo communities from their settlements.

In protest, the KZC directed that the bodies of Kuki-Zo people killed by Naga armed groups in Manipur should not be buried until further notice. The remains are to be preserved in the nearest cold-storage facilities.

The council demanded that the Manipur and central governments protect vulnerable civilians, bring the perpetrators to justice, and take firm action against armed groups targeting civilians. Saikul MLA Kimneo Hangshing also condemned the attack, calling any established involvement of NSCN-IM or ZUF-K cadres a “grave and heinous assault on innocent civilian lives.”

Ethnic violence in Manipur has continued despite repeated appeals for restraint from Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh.

The latest killings add to the cycle of retaliatory violence between communities in the state. Investigations into the attack are ongoing.