Manipur sees fresh clashes as IDPs protest Sangai Festival

Guwahati: Clashes broke out between security forces and protestors in Manipur’s Imphal East district on Friday over the ongoing 10-day Sangai Festival.

Around 400 IDPs from Moirang and Bishnupur began marching towards their abandoned homes in Churachandpur, upset that the government was organising the festival without rehabilitating them. While Moirang and Bishnupur are Meitei-dominated areas, Churachandpur is a Kuki-dominated district in the hills. Police stopped the IDPs at Phougakchao Ikhai, an area located around the hill–valley border. The IDPs are refusing to return to their camps.

The Sangai Festival was inaugurated on Friday. Manipur valley-based civil society organisation, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), has called for a cease-work campaign on November 21.


COCOMI is opposing the festival amid the ongoing crisis faced by families displaced by ethnic violence, calling it “highly insensitive.”

A senior police officer who did not want to be named told ET, “Clash happened at Khurai Lamlong when security forces intercepted demonstrators, including several displaced persons, who were marching towards the venue of the festival. The demonstrators hurled stones at the forces, forcing them to lob several rounds of tear gas shells."

The cease-work call resulted in shutdown-like scenes. Normal life in the Imphal Valley districts was affected, with markets and other commercial establishments remaining closed.

Groups of internally displaced people (IDPs) are opposing the festival as they are seeking permanent rehabilitation before any such tourism event is held.

Classes were suspended in all schools and colleges in these districts. Manipur has been under President’s Rule since February after CM N Biren Singh, who led a BJP government, resigned amid criticism of his administration’s handling of the ethnic violence that broke out in May 2023 and claimed over 260 lives.

On Thursday, there were also clashes in Imphal as police fired tear gas shells to disperse protesters mobilised by COCOMI.
The protesters, shouting slogans such as “We boycott Sangai Festival” and “Displaced lives matter,” attempted to storm the festival site at Hapta Kangjeibung, expressing strong opposition to the government’s decision to proceed with the event amid the displacement crisis.

Manipur Police has registered a criminal case at Porompat Police Station in connection with the physical assault on a police officer during a protest at Palace Compound on Thursday.

Over 260 people were killed, 1,500 were injured, and more than 70,000 were displaced after ethnic violence broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities on May 3, 2023, following a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ in the hill districts to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.