Imphal: In a conflict zone where the line between protector and perpetrator has long been blurred, the interrogation of a serving policeman from Kangpokpi district has opened a fresh wound in Manipur’s festering ethnic crisis. The officer, whose name investigators have withheld pending formal charges, is being questioned for his alleged role in the abduction and killing of six Naga men, including two pastors, whose mutilated bodies were recovered by security forces on June 10.
What makes this case singular is not merely the brutality, but the identity of the suspect. The Kangpokpi Police, acting on statements from Naga women who were held hostage and subsequently released, identified one of their own as a person of interest. The women, in their statements to investigators, named the policeman as having a hand in the abduction. He was interrogated recently, though officials maintain that his “exact role in the crime is yet to be ascertained.”
The case has since been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) following public outrage that cut across community lines. Yet, nearly a month after the transfer, the NIA has made no arrests. This delay drew the attention of the Union Home Minister himself. On Saturday, Amit Shah reviewed the security situation in Manipur and directed both state agencies and the NIA to accelerate their crackdown on suspects. Sources present at the review said Shah expressed specific concern over the “tardy pace of investigations” in recent cases of violence, including those between the Naga and Kuki communities, and called for the arrest of all suspects involved.
The May 13 hostage crisis was larger than the six Naga deaths alone. At least 44 civilians were reportedly abducted that day by armed groups from both the Kuki and Naga communities across Kangpokpi and Senapati districts, where Nagas detained kukis after the reported abduction by Kukis. While several were released in the days that followed, 14 members of the Kuki community were detained until June 9. The recovery of the six Naga bodies came a day later, a sequence that suggests the hostages were being used as bargaining chips in a macabre negotiation between ethnic armed formations.
Kangpokpi’s location makes it a tinderbox. Surrounded by the Naga-dominated Senapati district to the north and the Meitei-dominated valley to the south, the town sits on a fault line of competing territorial and political claims. National Highway 2, the lifeline that runs through it, has been severely affected, choking the transportation of essential goods and deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area already reeling from months of ethnic violence.
The involvement of a policeman, even as a suspect, raises questions that go beyond this single incident. In multiple cases since the outbreak of widespread violence in 2023, individual personnel from local police forces have faced allegations of taking sides, according to official inquiries and human-rights documentation. If the allegations in this case hold, it would not merely be an instance of an individual gone rogue, it would point to the coercive apparatus being drawn into communal retribution.
Shah’s review also touched on another dimension of the region’s instability: the narcotics trade. Officials said the Home Minister stressed the need to dismantle drug networks operating in the hills, a trade that has long fuelled both the conflict and the armed groups that profit from it. The intersection of ethnic violence, narcotics, and now alleged police complicity presents a governance challenge that no amount of security reviews can paper over.
For the families of the six dead men, the wait for justice continues. For the Naga women who survived captivity and named a policeman in their testimony, the wait is for protection and credibility. And for Kangpokpi. a town where neighbours have become combatants and the uniform no longer guarantees neutrality. the question is whether the investigation will be allowed to reach wherever the evidence leads, or whether it, too, will become another casualty of Manipur’s endless war with itself.
The NEWire.in Investigative Desk is tracking developments in this case. This report is based on official statements, witness accounts, and ground reporting from Manipur.
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