Centre directs fuel, essentials reach people in Manipur, Amit Shah briefs PM Modi on situation

Modi chaired a meeting in which Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri were present along with senior officials.

Sources said a decision to expedite the process of ensuring regular supply of fuel and LPG cylinders was taken at the meeting. The Centre will also see that other essential commodities are available to people, sources said.

Earlier in the day, Shah met Modi to brief him on the “current situation in the state and the issues involved”, sources said.

It is learnt that there have been discussions at the top level on the demand for removal of Singh from the CM post.

There is still a lack of clarity in New Delhi on the situation in Manipur. “It is constantly changing. If it is calm for a day, it may change on the next day. It will not be politically wise to take any extreme decision in such a situation. The government is taking all kinds of measures to restore normalcy. Both the party and the government can consider other options after controlling the situation a bit,” a party leader said.

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With over a month since ethnic clashes began, fault lines are deepening in Manipur where civilians, on either side of the divide, are picking up guns to defend themselves and target each other. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Tensions continue on ground, especially in areas where the Meitei-dominated plains give way to the Kuki-populated hills. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Three people were injured in a suspected IED blast in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Wednesday evening. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The Indian Express came across two young men – a 25-year-old Meitei hardware shop owner and a 23-year-old Kuki science teacher – who have spent these past weeks in trenches dug up in their villages, keeping a watch for any unwanted movement. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A makeshift bunker made of sandbags and a tin roof at a Meitei village to the east of the Dimapur-Churachandpur highway in Manipur. (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A graduate from a college in Bishnupur district, this 25-year-old spends more than 12 hours every day in the bunker south of the village. “I can’t counter such heavy firing with this single barrel. It does not even fire properly," he says.

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Standing guard in one of these bunkers is a 26-year-old science graduate working as a bank executive. Until recently, he had never fired or laid his hands on a gun. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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A locally assembled ‘pumpi gun’, which is triggered by pulling the rope and is potent enough to blow up a vehicle, is seen at a Kuki village close to Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts in Manipur (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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For additional security, the locals have dug up the road and mounted a ‘pumpi gun’ to ensure no one can get close to the Kuki village, which is located near the Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts in Manipur. (Express Photo: Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The village, with open fields before it, has a ring of 14 sandbag bunkers. Beyond the bunkers are a line of halogen bulbs strung up on bamboo poles to watch for movements. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Destruction raged throughout Haokip Veng as ethnic violence rocked Manipur. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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This picture was taken at Haokip Veng, a Kuki colony in Imphal, which has been completely burned down (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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To the left of the bamboo mesh, the fields have been dug up with JCBs to make military-style trenches and bunkers where gunmen keep watch day and night for any movement from the Meitei side. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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After initial large-scale clashes from May 3 to 5, Manipur has seen a second wave of violence, primarily in the form of arson and shootings in areas between the Kuki-dominated hills and the Meitei-dominated valley this week (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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The worst incident in the fresh flare-up was on the night of June 13, when nine people were killed in incidents of firing and arson in Aigejang village in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district. (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

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Amid clashes, Dominic Lumon, the Archbishop of Imphal claimed that 249 churches belonging to Meitei Christians had been destroyed so far (Express/Deeptiman Tiwary)

After meeting Shah on Sunday, Chief Minister Singh too said the prevailing situation in Manipur is “very chaotic”. He told reporters after the meeting: “The initial phase of violence was highly political and sensitive, but we cannot say what is happening now. The situation is very chaotic.”

After returning to Imphal, Singh said Shah expressed concern over the changing nature of violence in the state. “The changing nature of violence from the exchange of fire in the peripheral areas to the civil unrest in the valley districts has become a matter of concern for Amit Shahji,” he told reporters in Imphal.

He met the Union Home Minister a day after a number of Opposition parties sought his removal from the CM post, saying he had “failed miserably” and that “it would be impossible to bring back peace and normalcy under his leadership in the state”. At an all-party meeting convened by Shah in New Delhi Saturday, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav was the only leader who demanded President’s rule in Manipur, while many wanted Singh’s removal.

Congress leader and former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh too was for Biren Singh’s removal as CM.

Sources said Shah did not directly respond to the Opposition demands. “He told the leaders that the government is doing everything to restore peace in the state. He said every suggestion will be taken into consideration. He concluded the meeting, saying ‘have faith in me’, a leader said.

Earlier this month, eight MLAs from the BJP and an Independent supporting the Manipur government submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office, underlining that the “public have lost complete faith in the present state government”. BJP ally National People’s Party also threatened to reconsider ties if the situation did not improve.