NBirendra Singh (name changed), 77, a businessman from Imphal Manipur The Meitei community, regularly talks to a retired government employee of his childhood friend, cookie-community on phone who now lives in Charachandpur.
Recalling his conversation a few months ago, Birendra says, “He was worried and worried. He says that delivery was safe and a healthy child was born.”
Two years ago, Birendra and his friends, who lived in Imphal, met regularly and looked for each other. All that changed May 3, 2023, when ethnic violence erupted Among the tribal cookies and majority of the people in the north-eastern state.
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Now, the Imphal Valley, where Birendra and other Metez live, and the mountainous regions including the Charachandpur surrounding the valley are separated by many layers of security. The system known as ‘buffer zone’ is to prevent violence from physical enterprises in each other areas.
Birendra never thought that he would not see his friend for 28 months. It seems that the divisions have intensified as people, who lost their homes and loved ones in violence, struggling to come back to regular life.
Around 250 people have been killed and displaced over 60,000 in a battle for land rights and scheduled tribes. Following the first wave of violence, the state saw shutdown, protest and an information blockade until the President’s rule came into force in February this year.
20 -year -old Samuel Wipehi, who studied in Imphal, now teaches children at a relief camp in Charachandpur. Like hundreds of other people, they had to run away from their home. He was one of the 40 internal displaced persons (IDPs), who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13 September.
This was Modi’s first visit to the state as ethnic clashes sang Manipur. “I told the Prime Minister about our pain and suffering. I told him that we do not want to live with mathis in any way,” Vipihi says about the community that creates 53% of the state’s population.
Cookie-Zo groups form 26% of the population. According to official estimates, the violence has severely affected 28,000 cookie-zos and 25,000 Meiteis.
Plan A and B
During its four -hour stay in the state, Modi performed two public demonstrations: One in Imphal, one in the Valley District, and the other in Charachandpur, one in the hilly district. At the Peace Ground in Charachandpur, usually used for the ceremony by the cookie-Zo community, he announced several projects worth Crore 7,300 crore to Manipur.
By 1891, at the Kangla Fort in Mitti dynasty, Kangla Fort in Imphal, PM inaugurated projects worth ₹ 1,200 crore. Ranoi Likambam, 22, a seller in a pharmacy nearby, says, “It’s too late. Why is he coming now?”
Security personnel in Churachandpur on 13 September, when PM Narendra Modi visited. , Photo Credit: Vijit Singh
The journey was almost canceled due to continuous rains. A day earlier, the sky was bright and sunny. Both grounds turned into a swamp within hours. The pumps were installed to exclude the water as people were stuck through mud to reach the waterproof tents.
42 -year -old Roshan Thanaujam, a seller selling momos on the roadside, says, “The opening projects are not not the same. I will not go to their rally.”
The road was planned as a backup option, stuck on the road keeping in mind the political uproar on the PM’s convoy 20 minutes during his visit to Punjab in 2022“The road was in place because the weather could turn into this region at any time. We were not completely dependent on the air route. We did not want to take risks. Until late night, the soldiers were mobilized from other places and were covered a 61-km-km distance.”
Modi was originally slated by Chopper to travel directly from Iswal to Charachandpur. Instead, he flew in an aircraft to Imphal. “We must have taken him from Imphal Airport (Charachandpur) by Chopper, but two other helicopters could not come. At least three choppers are required to maintain ambiguity during the VVIP visit,” the official said.
He traveled to Churachandpur, mentioning it during his speech. He spoke in Hindi at both places, unable to follow the language with many people, especially in Charachandpur. He started the day by inaugurating a railway line in Mizoram and stayed in Manipur on his way in Assam in the evening.
The much awaited journey was announced a day earlier. However, officials and security forces were given a voice about a potential ‘VVIP Yatra’ on 1 September. Roads in Charachandpur, where the convoy was to be passed, was re-fed 4-5 days earlier, while internal roads with interval pits were left untouched.
“On the night of 12 September, when we were forecasting the weather, it was discussed whether PMs could address both places through videoconferench.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah monitored the PM’s visit demanding regular updates from the state government officials.
Open roads
Modi has been criticized by the people of the state for not visiting Manipur soon after the violence. During the 2024 general election, the Congress won both the Lok Sabha seats in the state. This was the second visit by a Prime Minister of Charachandpur after Rajiv Gandhi’s visit in 1988.
In the hill district, the village head, whose dicts, were rarely defined, were planted by the state administration to ensure the maximum attendance of the roadside people when the convoy passed. The earlier planned roadshow was closed due to continuous rains. School children and other local people, who were waiting for PM with a tricolor and poster in a vegetable market, were taken to the other side of the city in buses and open the mini-truck at the last moment due to the change in the plan.
A CRPF official posted at a point in the roadshow, “We were asked to keep a lot of distance from the crowd when the convoy passed as the presence of security personnel, the assumption that things are not normal here.”
After implementing the President’s rule, the buffer zone was implemented and Modi’s motorcycle traveled between Bishanupur and Churachandpur through such an area. His motorcycle passed through a damaged bridge, which was blown by miscreants in 2023 and several houses and properties were burnt during the conflict. Some of the properties burnt in the buffer zone are occupied by security forces, in which the bullet-riddled walls are painted fresh and turned into a control room for social media and drone monitoring.
The road has at least seven checkposts, which were removed to give quick access to the PM’s convoy. It took about an hour to reach Charachandpur from Imphal Airport. Checkposts were back after the convoy left.
Linda Kim, 42, a resident of Hiantum village in Charachandpur, says the journey outside the state has become expensive. “There are no good hospitals here. Earlier, it spends us ₹ 200 and it took an hour to reach the Imphal Airport. Now, we pay around 3,500 to reach the isol in 12-13 hours. If there is a landslide, we are sometimes stuck on the road for two days if there is a landslide.
Officials say the IDP received from the Prime Minister was carefully selected and elected by the state administration. A retired Navy person, 42 -year -old N. Samandan Singh was building a small resort in Morah along with Myanmar’s border with Myanmar, when violence took place. On his phone, he still has a video of a low-building resort in which he invested all his retirement money. He points to a small swimming pool that he was making there. On May 4, 2023, a day after the violence started in Charachandpur, his house and resort were attacked.
Many Meteyi families were to take shelter in army camps like them, while their properties were surprised. Samanand now lives in a relief camp in Imphal, which has been installed in a part of the Girls College. He told the Prime Minister that those who have become refugees in their state need jobs as there is no regular source of income. He said that many people had either killed their lives in the camp or died of diseases. He says, “We have to depend on others for food or work as daily wages.”
He demanded that the National Highway -2, which connects the Imphal Valley in Nagaland to Dimapur and is further opened to the people of Mete. “We cannot travel by air. If roads open, we can travel to Guwahati in Assam and earn some money,” they say.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on 4 September that NH -2, which passes through Kuki -Zo areas of Kangpokpi district to the north of Imphal, has been opened for free movement of all vehicles. On September 14, when Hindu The border visited the checkpoint, plying only commercial freight vehicles, and private vehicles and buses with non-metai passengers on the road. Czechpoint was converted into a buffer zone between the Miti-furious Imphal West District and Cookie-Zo-Dominated Kangpokpi district after May 2023.
Broken and broken highway with pits is important to bring the necessary supply to the landlocked Imphal Valley, which does not have rail connectivity. This is the major road for the airport in Imphal, which the cookie-people have not been able to access.
Pointing to deep partitions on the ground, a security officer stated that he was denied delivery of a coffee machine from Imphal when the seller came to know that it was led to the hills. While economic activity has been affected, there is very little progress in ensuring justice for the victims. In most cases registered during the violence, the tests have not started yet.
Hope of healing
On June 19, 2023, a small video clip of two women was taken away and paraded by a mob on social media. Women were trying to avoid the crowd of 800-900 people who were chasing their family.
One of the women was allegedly gang -raped 70 days ago. His father and brother were killed by the crowd. It was alleged that the women were handed over to the mob by the policemen, which they had trusted to protect them.
Although six persons, including a teenager, were arrested and the case was shifted to the Central Bureau of Investigation on the Supreme Court directions, the case has not started yet. In 2023, about 3,000 cases related to ethnic clashes were filed.
None of the two rapes survived was one of the IDPs who met the Prime Minister in Shanti Maidan, who is about 20 km from the rented residence of one of them. For more than two years, she is still struggling with trauma.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with violence affected people at a relief camp in Imphal, Manipur. (X/PMO through PTI photo)
Assam Rifles (AR), a 190-year-old paramilitary unit that serves both as a counter-encecatia and Peacekeeping Force, arranged for regular psychological counseling sessions for the escape from rape. A room was read with videocaming facilities at the AR campus in Charachandpur, where the woman joined by a consultant from Guwahati.
“Hill Town has neither medical facilities nor counselor. To help the woman, we decided to hold a counseling session. We gave him a room and internet connectivity, so she could get professional help,” called an officer.
Back to Imphal, Birendra, whose dairy business was severely affected due to violence, says philosophically, “What is the use of quarrels? We are all temporarily here.”
