Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand on Saturday travelled to Churachandpur district to attend the funeral of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vungzagin Valte, a victim of ethnic violence in the state.

This was the first visit by a chief minister to the Kuki-majority district since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023. The visit also came in the backdrop of a shutdown and boycott call by some Kuki-Zo organisations, the Hindustan Times reported.

Valte, a minister in the previous state government led by N Biren Singh, died on February 20, nearly three years after he was assaulted by a mob, allegedly comprising members of armed Meitei group Arambai Tenggol. The attack on May 4, 2023, took place at Nagamapal in Imphal when the MLA was returning from a meeting with Singh.

Valte died at a hospital in Gurugram, and his body was subsequently brought to Churachandpur, where it had been placed in a mortuary till Saturday. His family had refused to bury his body till the Union government agreed to carve out a separate district for the Zomi tribe, to which the MLA belonged, and an inquiry by the National Investigation Agency into his death.

However, the family eventually decided to cremate Valte as his wife was unwell and wanted her husband to be laid to rest, the Hindustan Times quoted an unidentified member of his family as saying.

About five months before his death, Valte had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, supporting the demand for a separate administration for the Zomi-Kuki-Hmar community. He had said that the community had been driven out of Imphal and from the Manipur valley, leading a “complete physical and social divide”.

On Saturday, Khemchand travelled to Churachandpur by helicopter as he had to return to Imphal to attend a virtual meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah later in the day, a statement from the chief minister’s office said.

Khemchand said it was a “huge honour” for him to be able to attend Valte’s last rites. “My deepest regret is that on that particular afternoon, if I were with him, that incident would not have taken place,” he said.

The attack in which Valte was injured took place a day after ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in the state. Since then, at least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Fresh tensions between Kukis and Nagas also broke out in February in the Ukhrul district after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes. At least 25 persons from the two communities have been killed since tensions erupted.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.