Manipur reopens highways, resumes Imphal-Kohima bus service after ethnic blockades

In a significant step towards restoring normalcy in Manipur, the state government on Saturday announced the immediate reopening of all national highways for the free movement of people from every community. The decision comes more than a year after the Union government failed to clear the economic blockades imposed by ethnic groups, which had severely disrupted road connectivity and deepened divisions in the conflict-hit state.

The government also announced the resumption of a bus service connecting Imphal, the capital of Manipur, with Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. Certain community members had been barred from using this arterial highway since violence erupted between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities in May 2023. The conflict later spread to involve Kuki-Zo and Naga groups from February this year, leading to blockades and counter-blockades on key stretches.

The Tangkhul Naga Long, a prominent Naga organisation, welcomed the announcement but urged the government to halt the “militarisation” of Naga-inhabited areas. It also demanded the rejection of any separate administration for the Kuki community in what it described as the ancestral homeland of the Naga people. Kuki organisations have not yet responded to the announcement.

The blockades were imposed on sections of National Highway 2 and National Highway 202, affecting the movement of goods and people. Kuki groups imposed a blockade on NH-2 through Kangpokpi district soon after the May 2023 conflict, cutting off access primarily for the Meitei community. Naga organisations enforced a counter-blockade on the stretch through Senapati district earlier this year, following the killing of six Naga hostages allegedly by Kuki people. The Kuki-Naga conflict also led to a blockade on the Litan stretch of NH-202, which connects Imphal with the Naga-dominated Kamjong and Ukhrul districts.

Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen, and Saitu MLA Haokholet Kipgen jointly announced the reopening during a visit to Kangpokpi, a Kuki-majority district. The announcement came a day ahead of a threatened total shutdown by a coalition of 14 civil society organisations demanding an Assam-like exercise to update the National Register of Citizens.

“The boundaries of Manipur were formed and have been protected by all communities over 3,000 years. Some vested interest groups are trying to create confusion among us, but there is a solution to every crisis,” Chief Minister Singh said, after holding meetings with community leaders as part of the government’s ongoing peace-building and reconciliation efforts.

He underscored the need for all communities to identify themselves as Manipuri first and move freely in each other’s domains. Deputy Chief Minister Kipgen appealed to civil society organisations, public leaders, and intellectuals to support lasting peace. “Manipur can achieve complete development only when both the valley and the hill areas progress equally,” she said.

MLA Haokholet Kipgen said NH-2 has been the lifeline of all communities in Manipur since the Second World War, when Manipur and Nagaland formed a key theatre of the war. “It is high time for all communities involved in the conflicts to forget the past and return to normality,” he said.

Manipur’s topography is often compared to a sports stadium, with the Imphal Valley as the central playfield, the surrounding hills as the galleries, and the highways as crucial passages through the galleries to and from the playfield. This specific geography makes the highways, particularly NH-2 and NH-37, lifelines of the state. NH-2 connects Imphal with Kohima to the north, while NH-202 connects Imphal to Mokokchung via Ukhrul district. NH-37, which links Imphal with Silchar in southern Assam, has been largely incident-free but is less preferred by travellers due to cave-ins, frequent landslides, and presence of extortion gangs.

The reopening of the highways is seen as a positive step towards easing tensions, but the threatened shutdown by civil society groups highlights the fragility of the situation. The government’s announcement is part of its broader peace-building efforts, though deep-rooted ethnic differences remain unresolved.