The Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) has claimed that Kukis here are the Zo people believed to be the descendents of one of the 'lost tribes of Israel', according to sources. The KNF is an insurgent group which aims at establishing a separate State curving out a part of Bangladesh.
According to mahabahu.com official webpage of KNF most of the members of KNF are Christians. Meanwhile, according to various journals and Wikipedia they are Zo people and Chin-Kuki-Mizo are basically members of the 'lost tribes of Israel' and have adopted the practice of Judaism.
The founding president of the Kuki-Chin National Front is Nathan Bom, a graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Dhaka.
The Bawm community is mostly Christian and accuses the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti of discrimination.
He was an active member of the Dhaka metropolitan branch and central committee of JSS' student organization Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP). He is also the founding president of Kuki-Chin National Development Organization (KNDO).
According to sources, the Bnei Menashe is a community from the North East India who have adopted Judaism, believing they are the descendants of the Biblical tribe of Manasseh. They have emerged from the culturally and linguistically linked Chin-Kuki-Mizo tribes, found predominantly in the hill districts of Bandarban in Bangladesh, Manipur and Mizoram in India, and the Chin State of Myanmar. Earlier, they were not aware of their Jewish identity but it was only in the 1950s that Judaizing movement started in Mizoram which later spread widely in 1970s in the whole Chin-Kuki-Mizo inhabited areas of the region.
Reports have suggested that Kuki diasporas in Israel began to settle briefly in 1990s, even before they were officially recognised and declared as the seeds of Israel by Chief Rabbi (religious head) in 2005.
The Kuki people are an ethnic group in the Northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, Bandarban at Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Chin people of Myanmar and the Mizo people of Mizoram are kindred tribes of the Kukis. Collectively, they are termed the Zo people.
The Jews from Mizoram and Manipur consider themselves to be Bnei Menashe- the descendents of one of the 'lost tribes of Israel' and have adopted the practice of Judaism.
The Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) an insurgent group which aims at establishing a separate State within Bangladesh were armed and trained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) of Myanmar. The KNF also trained by Kuki National Army (KNA) at Manipur, according to sources.
Nathan, who authored six books, worked on the sculpture of MN Larma at Chengi Square in Khagrachhari. He was the first candidate from the Bam community as an independent candidate in the 2018 parliamentary election.
In October, law enforcers discovered that KNF was training members of a new militant group named Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in exchange for money.
Formed in 2017, the KNF aims at establishing a separate State within Bangladesh -- with nine upazilas, namely Baghaichhari, Barkal, Belaichhari and Jurachhari upazilas of Rangamati hill district and Ruma, Thanchi, Alikadam and Rowangchhari upazilas under Bandarban.
Moreover, around 50 to 60 of the KNF members are said to be undergoing training with sophisticated weapons. They are believed to have 2,000 members armed with heavy weapons, including AK 47, in the Jampui hills of Bandarban's Ruma border and Mizoram border of India.
The KNF got direct training from other country intelligence forces in the name of Kuki Nationalism, provided with not only moral support but also strategic assistance to the Kuki aggressors operating in Bangladesh. They also share battle tactics, intelligence gathering and cyber warfare like social media campaign. They also provide physical or online training on use of sophisticated weaponry, according to sources. Manipur has now become a safe haven for these KNF armed groups.
Meanwhile, enforcement agencies in Bangladesh are handling the crisis when the armed militants such as KNA is demanding a separate state and killing several Bangladeshi army personnel and civilians.
