Photo Courtesy: nenow
Imphal: Residents and village chiefs swarmed Khengjang and Molcham villages on Monday. They gathered to kill a government plan. The proposal seeks to redraw the Indo-Myanmar border alignment. Demonstrators marched against shifting boundary pillars 65 through 68.
The Affected Border Area Kuki Chiefs organized the rallies. They refuse to lose their land. These protests stem from a May 11, 2026 meeting. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the session. The Ministry of Home Affairs ordered the work finished within three months. The plan shifts markers in the Khengjoi sector of Chandel district.
The affected sites are BP No. 65 at Molcham, BP No. 66 at Jangngoulen, BP No. 67 at Khumkot, and BP No. 68 at Joldam. Village chiefs claim the plan ignores local reality and history. "The protesters said they would not surrender any part of their ancestral land to the proposed changes."
Disputed areas include homes, jhum cultivation sites, wet-rice fields, and burial grounds. The Kuki-Zo people hold these lands as sacred. The Kuki Inpi Chandel body backed the resistance. Protesters called the move a unilateral administrative decision. They demand the current ground positions stand as the true boundary.
Updated at 11th August 2026 at 10:01pm
Thousands of protesters took to the streets on August 11, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing dispute over the Khengjoi sector. The mobilization highlighted the intense political sensitivity surrounding land rights and indigenous security in Manipur, where tribal communities feel increasingly squeezed by state-led territorial decisions.
The chiefs issued a stark ultimatum regarding the land, declaring, "We cannot accept this undemocratic move of the government. Not an inch of our land will be parted." They warned that the state must address the specific claims of border residents before pushing ahead with any further engineering or realignment of the frontier.
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