A seemingly minor street fight between a few men in a remote Manipur village has developed into a major ethnic conflict between the Naga and Kuki communities. What began with an argument on a dark road in Litan village on February 7, 2026, has exposed decades-old tensions over land, identity and territorial claims.
The incident took place in Litan, a village in Manipur's Ukhrul district, where Naga and Kuki communities had lived alongside each other for years. According to accounts gathered from witnesses, the confrontation began when a torchlight flashed towards three Kuki men who were reportedly returning home.
Stalin Shimrey, a Naga resident, claimed that the men became angry after the torchlight fell on their faces. He alleged that they later returned with several others and attacked his friend, Leishi Yui Kasar. Shimrey said he was also assaulted and knocked unconscious during the confrontation.
However, the Kuki side has presented a different version. Nemneikim Baite, a Kuki woman who witnessed the incident, claimed that her brother was first confronted and assaulted by the Naga men. She alleged that her brother punched Shimrey during the fight, causing him to fall and suffer serious injuries.
Shimrey reportedly suffered a broken jaw and remained hospitalised for nearly two months.
A failed peace settlement
Initially, community elders attempted to resolve the dispute through traditional tribal customs rather than involving the police. However, efforts to reach a settlement failed the following morning.
Both communities accused each other of escalating the confrontation. The situation deteriorated rapidly, with houses being damaged, stone-pelting and gunfire reported. Between February 8 and 10, several homes belonging to both communities were reportedly burnt.
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were subsequently deployed to prevent further clashes and keep the communities apart.
Old land disputes resurface
The violence was not simply about the original street fight. Competing claims over ancestral land and territorial ownership have been major sources of tension between the two communities.
Kuki representatives have alleged that their community faced pressure and attacks in Naga-dominated areas even before the February incident. Naga representatives, meanwhile, have rejected these claims and maintained that Litan is their ancestral territory.
Historical tensions between the communities also date back to clashes between 1993 and 1998, when around 750 people were killed.
Violence spreads across Manipur
The February confrontation gradually developed into wider clashes involving arson, armed attacks, abductions and killings. According to the latest reports, the Naga-Kuki conflict has claimed 65 lives, including three deaths in Noney district on October 31. The overall death toll from ethnic violence in Manipur over three years has reached at least 363, with thousands displaced.
The Litan incident has therefore become a symbol of deeper ethnic and territorial divisions in Manipur. As one of the people involved in the original confrontation remarked, “I was just the trigger.”
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