The governor reached the airport from Delhi and took an army chopper to the historic Kangla Fort 300 metres from the Raj Bhavan in view of the protests. Manipur governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Monday took a chopper from Imphal airport to reach Raj Bhavan about 6km away, after hundreds of people formed a human chain to protest the removal of “Manipur” from a state transport bus.
Officials said the governor reached the airport from Delhi on Monday and took an army chopper to the historic Kangla Fort 300 metres from the Raj Bhavan in view of the protests. The protests, spearheaded by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a prominent civil society coalition, saw protesters, including students form a human chain along Tiddim Road from the airport’s departure gate to Keishampat Junction.
The demonstration is part of a wider state-wide agitation led by COCOMI to demand the governor’s apology and removal of chief secretary PK Singh, security advisor Kuldiep Singh, and director general of police Rajiv Singh.
The agitation follows an incident on May 20, when a Manipur State Transport bus ferrying journalists to Ukhrul for the Shirui Lily Festival was stopped by central security personnel and ordered to remove the word “Manipur” from its signage, a move widely seen as an affront to the state’s identity.
Upon learning of Bhalla’s return on Monday, protesters formed a human chain demonstration along the route with banners that asked the governor to apologise or step down. Security forces, however, prevented protesters from taking out a rally in Imphal West district and fired tear gas shells to disperse them. The protesters had assembled in Kwakeithel area on Tiddim Road and planned to march towards the Raj Bhavan, but were stopped, said a senior officer.
Protesters also attempted to burn an effigy of the governor in Kwakeithel Bazaar but were stopped by security personnel. A protester said Bhalla should have met the public. “We will continue various forms of agitation until he apologises to the people,” he said.
Kuldiep Singh, who was brought in as the state’s security adviser as part of efforts to tackle the protracted ethnic violence in Manipur, defended the May 20 directive, saying it was a precautionary measure to avoid incidents like the one in Kangpokpi, where suspected Kuki-Zo militants attacked a bus. The ethnic violence in the state has since May 2023 claimed at least 260 lives and displaced around 60,000.
Meanwhile, a seven-member COCOMI team departed for New Delhi on Monday to hold a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday to address unresolved political and security issues stemming from the ongoing Manipur crisis.
The delegation is led by committee convenor Kh. Athouba and includes members Yengkokpam Dhiren Meetei, L. Jadumani Singh, Thiyam Bharat Singh, Laikhuram Jayenta Singh, Phijam Shyamchand Singh, and Yumkhaibam Surjitkumar.
