Clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities broke out first on May 3, 2023 and have since consumed over 180 lives. While violence has become endemic across Manipur, the recent conflagration was triggered by the sudden suspension of the Kuki-Zo head constable, Siamlalpaul, posted at Churachandpur, after images of him taking selfie videos with “armed men” went viral on social media on February 14. In protest, around 300-400 Kuki-Zo protesters mobbed the offices of Churachandpur’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Shivanand Surve and Deputy Commissioner (DC) S Dharun Kumar. While security forces claim that the firing was in retaliation to mob violence, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) has held the SP and DC “entirely responsible” for the deaths. The group has warned that “both the SP and DC will bear the responsibility of any untoward incident that may fall on them”, should they choose to stay in Churachandpur. The ITLF’s spokesperson, Ginza Vualzong, tells Outlook that suspending a tribal official for a selfie while ignoring Meitei officials ‘openly fraternising’ with armed militants reflects the state’s “anti-tribal” agenda to vilify the Kuki-Zo people. The irate activist adds that the ‘miscreants’ in the viral photograph clicked by Siamlalpaul were volunteers of the village defence force, and not “dangerous members of any Suspension of Operations (SoO) groups as is being touted in the media”.