GUWAHATI Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said on June 21 that peace would return to his State in two or three months because of the priority given to resolving the 14-month-long violence by the new National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
He also claimed Manipur has been slowly returning to normal with businesses opening up.
“Violence is everywhere, and it has reduced in Manipur. Although the State has been going through a crisis for 14 months, the actual violence happened for half this period. This indicates there were seven months of peace with schools and business establishments reopening,” Mr. Singh told journalists during an event to mark International Yoga Day in the State’s capital Imphal.
He admitted there have been incidents of violence in some pockets of Manipur owing to the lack of security personnel, many of whom had left for election duty. They have been deployed once again in the vulnerable areas, he said.
“The situation will be better now. We hope to arrive at a solution to the crisis within two-three months,” he said, attributing the optimism to the “top priority” given by the “Narendra Modi 3.0 government” to ensure a reign of peace in Manipur.
An action plan is being worked on following a high-security meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah a few days ago, he added.
Mr. Singh asserted that influx from Myanmar and the drug menace from outside the region were responsible for the unrest in Manipur. Addressing these issues would lead to faster resolution of the State’s crisis, he said.
More than 225 people have been killed and about 62,000 displaced since the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo people broke out on May 3, 2023. Over the past couple of weeks, the violence shifted from the central Imphal Valley and the surrounding foothills to Jiribam district bordering Assam.
