Court Next Stop Over Denial Of Free Movement In Manipur: Indigenous People Group To Governor

A civil society organisation of indigenous people has asked Governor AK Bhalla to ensure permanent reopening of the two National Highways in Manipur.

"Despite repeated appeals, the situation has not improved, and the continued closure of these highways amounts to a denial of the people's fundamental rights to life, movement, and livelihood as guaranteed under the Constitution," the Indigenous People's Forum, Manipur (IPFM) said in a memorandum to the governor.

"... Take immediate and decisive steps to ensure the safe and permanent reopening of the two National Highways and to guarantee uninterrupted movement of goods and people," the IPFM said.

The IPFM said it would hold a peaceful protest and go to court for "protection of the constitutional and humanitarian rights of people."

"For several months, the two National highways - the lifeline of the state - have remained blocked and inaccessible due to the prevailing ethnic unrest. As a result, essential supplies including food, medicines, fuel, and other necessities are either unavailable or sold at exorbitant prices, severely affecting the daily lives of ordinary citizens. Students, patients, traders and workers are all facing unprecedented difficulties," the IPFM said in the memorandum.

The memorandum comes days after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ordered the police and civil authorities in Manipur's Kangpokpi district to give an action-taken report on a complaint about denial of safe passage through National Highway-2, which connects the state capital Imphal with Dimapur in neighbouring Nagaland.

Initially, the NHRC on August 20 told the Imphal district magistrate/collector and the police chief to look into the matter raised by the petition and send an action-taken report. The Imphal West district police chief replied to the NHRC on September 9, saying the matter was not under their jurisdiction, but under their Kangpokpi counterparts.

The NHRC then directed the Kangpokpi police chief and the district magistrate/collector to send a report.

".. It is therefore requested that the additional/complete report as directed by the Commission in the matter be sent latest by January 4, 2026 for further consideration by the Commission," the NHRC said in its response to the petition on Thursday.

Imphal resident Asem Roshan Singh in June filed a petition with the NHRC over the "ongoing denial of constitutionally guaranteed rights arising from the continued obstruction of National Highway-2 (lmphal-Dimapur Road)" in the Kangpokpi district stretch.

"This blockade, enforced through fear, extortion, abduction and ethnic targeting, has had a devastating impact on the human rights and livelihoods of civilians, especially the poor, students, and patients across the state," Roshan Singh said in the petition.

He said the Kangpokpi section of NH-2 is a part of the centrally maintained public highway, but it has remained inaccessible to many citizens, "with targeted harassment particularly of Meitei civilians... [and] all who do not belong to the dominant community in that district."

Kuki civil society organisations and their two dozen insurgent groups in talks with the Centre and the state government under the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement have insisted the physical distance between the two communities must be maintained till the time a settlement to the Manipur crisis is found.

Meitei civil society organisations have alleged their Kuki counterparts have been stopping internally displaced persons (IDPs) from returning to the valley areas in order to keep denying highway access to valley residents and keep the pot boiling. Access to the airport, which is in the valley, is not blocked for any community and disinformation is being spread by vested interests to keep tension alive, the Meitei organisations said.