The Committee on Tribal Unity Sadar Hills (CoTU) Kangpokpi District has served a 3-day ultimatum with effect from August 17 to re-impose highway blockade along National Highway (NH) 2 and 37 if essential commodities failed to reach the Kuki-Zo inhabited areas.
The group has explicitly stated its intention to disrupt both the primary National Highway 2, linking Manipur to Nagaland, and the more extensive National Highway 37, connecting the state to Assam.
This move is poised to escalate existing tensions in Manipur, where ethnic conflicts have been ongoing for over three months. Ng. Lun Kipgen, the Media Cell Coordinator for CoTU, expressed the group’s disillusionment with the efforts of the Government of India and the factions that have endorsed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement.
“CoTU would like to express its disappointment over the goodwill mission by the Government of India and the groups that have signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with regards to the opening up of national highways against the wishes of the people. We had hoped there would be reciprocity from the valley people,” Kipgen said.
The NH2 has already been subject to blockades on at least two occasions since the commencement of the violence in May. In a visit to Manipur at the end of May, Home Minister Amit Shah had appealed to groups like CoTU to end their blockades, a request to which they had acquiesced.
The current situation in Manipur is tense due to ethnic violence between the two largest groups, the majority Meitei and minority Kuki, over land and influence.
The violence began on May 3rd and has resulted in at least 130 deaths and 400 injuries, with more than 60,000 people being forced from their homes. The Indian government has deployed 40,000 soldiers, paramilitary troops, and police to the region in an attempt to stem the violence
Related: Manipur BJP MLA Raises Concerns Over State’s Role in Avoidable Ethnic Unrest.
