Kuki-Zo organisations in Manipur on Monday criticised the Union government for its decision to award the Shaurya Chakra to a Central Reserve Police Force officer whom they have accused of being involved in the “extrajudicial killing” of ten men from the community.

The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust and the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum demanded that the award to Assistant Commandant Vipin Wilson from the CRPF’s 20th battalion be revoked.

President Droupadi Murmu approved gallantry awards to 70 personnel from the armed forces on January 25. Wilson was among 13 personnel who were named as the recipients of the Shaurya Chakra, the country’s third-highest peacetime gallantry award.

The CRPF on Sunday night said that Wilson had on November 11, 2024, led a team of personnel “to foil a camp attack by insurgents in Manipur, neutralising 10 of them”.

The gunfight had taken place at a CRPF post in the Borobekra area of Manipur’s Jiribam district

“For his unparalleled bravery, he is conferred with the Shaurya Chakra this Republic Day [on Monday],” the CRPF said.

At the time of the attack, the Manipur Police had claimed that those killed in the gunfight were suspected Kuki militants. However, Kuki-Zo organisations had claimed that they were village volunteers.

The term “village volunteers” has been used for armed civilians guarding villages since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Kuki-Zo-Hmars and Meiteis communities in May 2023. At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced due to the violence.

On Monday, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum said that it was “appalled” by the Union government’s decision to award the Shaurya Chakra to the assistant commandant, saying that the conferment was a “continuation of the discrimination and injustice” meted out to the Kuki-Zo community.

The forum said that there was no cause for the 10 village volunteers to have attacked a CRPF post, as alleged by the authorities. “The men were a ragtag bunch of mostly daily-wage workers who volunteered to protect their people – not trained ‘militants’ as alleged by the police,” it said.

The statement said that the autopsy reports had also revealed that the men were shot from behind, “contradicting the official narrative that the CRPF post was attacked”. It questioned the conferring of the award to Wilson, who, it claimed, had decided to “fire on men who were only trying to protect their community”.

The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust also denounced the award, alleging that the honour was not an act of national pride but a “state endorsement” of an “extrajudicial killing”.

“Credible evidence, including forensic reports and eyewitness testimonies, confirms that the victims were unarmed or minimally armed civilians performing community defence duties during a period of ethnic violence,” the organisation.

“The state narrative labelling them as militants is a fabrication designed to justify a one-sided, disproportionate use of lethal force,” it said, adding: “This was not an encounter – it was an execution.”

The organisation added that the conferment of the award to Wilson was a “profound betrayal of constitutional values and demonstrates contempt for the lives of the Kuki-Zo people”.

Along with the revocation of the award, the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust called for the establishment of an independent investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court to look into the killing.