Within a week of Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh announcing the creation of seven new districts – four in the Naga-dominated areas ~ suspected NSCN(IM) cadres struck, killing five policemen while they were on the way to Tengnoupal where the new district was to be inaugurated. The next day about 70 NSCN(IM) militants attacked an India Reserve Battalion outpost in Tamenglong district, adjoining Nagaland, and decamped with a large quantity of sophisticated weapons. On 16 December, Imphal observed a total bandh, called by vendors of the women’s market in protest against the killing of the policemen. Some miscreants allegedly attacked the house of the elder brother of NSCN(IM) general secretary, Th Muivah, in Imphal town.

On 18 December, anti-blockade protesters burnt 20 vehicles bound for Ukhrul, Muivah’s home district, forcing the authorities to clamp prohibitory orders. Thankfully it was far less violent than feared and passengers, mostly Tangkhuls, were untouched. Since 1 November, Imphal is reeling under an indefinite economic blockade of two national highways called by the Manipur-based pro-NSCN(IM) United Naga Council, in protest against the Ibobi government’s decision to meet the Kukis’ nearly 40 year-old-demand for a separate full-fledged revenue entity in their stronghold at Kangpokpi, which falls within the Naga-dominated Senapati district.

This is the first time the people in the valley have come out openly against the blockade. Since the Centre has already declared it unlawful, it is up to the UNC leaders (under detention) now to play fair. Their immediate release will be a good gesture on the part of the chief minister as he has to spruce up law and order for the assembly election, due in the next four months.

Relations between the Nagas of Nagaland and Manipuris have soured after the NSCN(IM) leadership claimed the August 1997 Nagaland ceasefire also covered Manipur’s four hill districts, and more so after Ibobi stopped Muivah in May 2010 from visiting his native Somdal village in Ukhrul district.

The immediate need is to try and foster the feeling of oneness that once prevailed among the people of the hills and plains, keeping in mind that there is no alternative to sharing the hills and plains and co-existing. The Nagas of Manipur and Kukis have already indulged in the worst kind of ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, leaving more than 1,500 dead. If the situation is allowed to drift there is every possibility of Manipur seeing another spell of bloodletting.