Manipur Violence: Mobile Internet Services Restored In The State After Months-Long Pause
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Saturday announced that mobile internet services, which were suspended in the state on May 3, will be restored.
"The government had suspended mobile internet services on May 3 to check the spread of fake news, propaganda and hate speech. However, with the improvement of the situation, mobile internet services will be restored across the state from today," Singh said.
How internet suspension affected Manipur?
In July, there was a conditional restoration of broadband services in the state. Mobile internet services, however, remained suspended given the violence the state was undergoing.
The suspension of internet services, which the government had claimed was to prevent the spread of ethnic tensions, had affected both Manipuris living in the state and outside amid the unprecedented violence there.
Why tensions are still continuing?
More than four months after the violence broke out, which has claimed over 175 lives, and thousands were injured and made homeless, the tensions have refused to die down.
While the situation has improved compared to May and June, sporadic outbreaks and targeted killings continue during the peak of the violence.
Meanwhile, defying curfew, hundreds of people, primarily women, continued their protests in different places of Imphal East and Imphal West districts against the rearrest of Moirangthem Anand Singh(45) by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday.
After a series of massive agitations since September 17 by many civil society organisations and local clubs against the arrest of five "Village Defence Volunteers", a special NIA court in Imphal on Friday granted conditional bail to all five men who were arrested on September 16 wearing security forces uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons.
Officials said that the authority released four of the five and handed over them to their family members, but the NIA rearrested Singh for certain other cases.
"Singh, a trained cadre of the banned People's Liberation Army militant outfit, is likely to be taken to Delhi or outside Manipur for further interrogation," a senior police official said.
What caused the clashes
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mainly in the Imphal valley, while tribals, including Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mostly in the hill districts.
Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
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