Shah wants mobility restored in Manipur

Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday chaired a high-level review meeting on the security situation of Manipur and instructed security forces and the state administration to ensure free movement for people on all roads in the strife-torn northeastern state from March 8, warning of strict action if anyone created obstruction.

People aware of the development said Shah’s instructions is part of the Centre’s efforts to start movement of Kukis and Meiteis, in small numbers, into each other’s territory, for which there are plans to have road opening parties and security convoy.

The meeting was attended by Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, security adviser Kuldiep Singh, Intelligence Bureau (IB) director Tapan Deka, senior army officers, police chief, and chiefs of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Assam Rifles.

“Home Minister instructs free movement to be ensured for people on all roads in Manipur from March 8, 2025; take strict action against anyone attempting to create obstructions,” the ministry of home affairs said in a statement released by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

A security officer in Manipur, requesting anonymity, said the administration is working towards having a security convoy for people who wish to travel from hills to valley and vice versa.

“Kukis may not want to immediately settle in the valley but they need the airport in Imphal. Meities may not want to work or settle in hills but they too have to cross the Kuku-Zo district — Kangpokpi — to go to Nagaland or Assam. Currently, Meiteis have to take the flight out of Imphal while Kuki-Zo people travel 9-10 hours to reach Aizawl, Mizoram instead of an hour’s drive to the valley airport. In a way both are landlocked in their territory. These blockades by civilians have created invisible boundaries,” the officer said.

To be sure, since the President’s rule was imposed in Manipur on February 13, security forces have dismantled major roadblocks by civilians, who had set up bunkers on highways. At least 12 such bunkers have been destroyed, and security forces have taken control of the highways. It is at these blockades that people who accidentally crossed the buffer zones were often abducted by civilians and later handed to militant groups.

Since the start of the ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities in the state on May 3, 2023, road blockades on the highways have been common and adopted by the warring groups to restrict each other’s movement and also movement of essential items to the other’s district.

Within two days of the imposition of the President’s rule, security forces on February 15 dismantled civilian security checkpoints in Churachandpur on the highway connecting the district with Imphal and Bishnupur. The most recent bunker on National Highway-2 connecting Imphal with Kangpokpi district was dismantled on Thursday.

Armed civilians, referred to as village defence volunteers, monitored the entry of each vehicle into the district at these bunkers. Such road blockades, which forced vehicles carrying essential goods to take circuitous route to reach the location, have led to surge pricing of all essential items in the state and allegations of extortion.

Security forces continue to stay put in the buffer zones along the highway where the valley — dominated by Meiteis — meets the hill — mostly inhabited by Kuki-Zo people. Security personnel are posted on the road to ensure that armed militants from both groups do not cross into each other’s territory and indulge in violence. The development, though significant, does not mean that Meiteis and Kukis will freely move from their strongholds into each other’s area as the two communities are yet to settle for peace.

“If at all such an initiative of having a security convoy after sanitising roads fructifies, we do not know how many people will turn up to travel. But this is a start and the HM ordering strict against people blocking roads is clear. In fact, the bunkers removed in past two weeks was possible only because both groups know the orders are from the Centre,” a second officer in Manipur said, also declining to be named.

The MHA statement also said the home minister in the meeting told the officials that strict action should continue to be taken in all cases of extortion. “Fencing work on both sides of the designated entry points along Manipur’s international border should be completed at the earliest. To make Manipur drug-free, the entire network involved in drug trade should be dismantled,” it added.

The security review meeting was held against the backdrop of the Manipur administration and central agencies working with both Kuki and Meitei groups to get them to surrender weapons under the amnesty scheme offered by Governor Bhalla. Around 6,500 guns and 600,000 pieces of ammunition were looted by mobs from police armouries across the state. So far, the security forces have recovered only around 2,500 weapons, including at least 705 arms and ammunitions in the last eight days. A bulk of the looted arms and ammunition including hundreds of high calibre guns are still with civilians and militants in the state.

It is with these looted weapons that not only militants but even street criminals are indulging in extortion. Governor Bhalla on Friday extended his seven-day deadline to surrender the weapons till March 6 and assured people that no punitive action would be taken if the looted weapons were returned before the deadline.

At least 250 people died and 60,000 were rendered homeless in the ethnic clashes between Kuki-Zo and Meitei groups that started on May 4, 2023. Over 22 months after the clashes first broke out, normalcy is yet to be restored in the state. Last month, the Centre imposed the President’s rule in Manipur, days after chief minister N Biren Singh resigned following a rebellion by some ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators against Singh.