Women arrested in Assam for Drug Trafficking Falsely Claimed to be from Kuki Community

A post circulating on Facebook shared images of two women who were arrested by Assam Police for drug trafficking. The post claimed that these women belonged to the Kuki tribe of Manipur. It was accompanied by a caption in Meitei, amidst the tensions brewing between the Meitei and Kuki communities.

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However, when we investigated, we found that the women seen in the photos are not Kukis. Let us find out the complete details of this incident.

Fact Check

We conducted a Google reverse image search on the images and came across an article by India Today NE. According to the article, the women depicted in the photos were residents of Aizawl, Mizoram. The Assam Police apprehended them in February while they were attempting to smuggle heroin concealed in soap boxes into Assam, with the intention of further transporting it to other states. The seized heroin was estimated to be worth Rs. 3 crores.

Read full report here – India Today NE | Archived Link

The article mentions that the women were caught in a search operation launched by Cachar Sadar OC Amit Kumar Singh along with Rangirkhari TOP team based on inputs received. Hence, for further clarity we spoke to OC Amit Kumar Singh. He told us that, “this incident is not recent. This happened in February. The two women caught with Heroin are not from the Kuki Community. They were Mizo women trying to smuggle drugs into Assam.”

Meitei-Kuki Conflict

Manipur is a diverse state, encompassing various tribes such as Meitei, Kuki/Zo, and Nagas. Geographically, Manipur is divided into hills and valleys. The majority Meitei community predominantly resides in the valleys, while other tribes, such as the Kuki, primarily inhabit the hills. The Kuki tribe was brought from Myanmar by the British to the hills of Manipur to create a buffer between Kangleipak Kingdom (a kingdom of Meitei community that was a British protectorate) and the raiding Nagas.  The Maharaja of the Kangleipak Kingdom gave the fierce warrior Kuki tribes land along the ridges for protecting the Imphal valley below.

However, after independence ethnic clashes broke out following the Naga insurgency. In 1990, the Kukis formed militias as a reaction to the Naga movement and started to demand their own state within India called ‘Kukiland’. This caused a rift between the Meitei and Kuki communities. 

The recent violence we witnessed in Torbung area of Churachandpur after a group of Tribal students took out a march to protest the demand to include Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) Category. For further insight into the conflict between these two communities, you can refer to this article published by the Economic Times.

Conclusion

The post alleging the arrest of two Kuki women for drug smuggling into Assam is false. Our investigation has revealed that the women apprehended while attempting to smuggle drugs into Assam were Mizo, not Kuki.