Nestled in the verdant Naga Hills, the picturesque district of Churachandpur was a tranquil backwater. Today, it is a tragic battleground in the bloody civil war that has engulfed Manipur over the past three months. Dominated by the Kuki tribe, Churachandpur is 60 km from Imphal, capital of the state and home to a majority of the state’s other significant community—the Meiteis. National Highway No. 2, the chief artery connecting the two key districts, has now turned into an unlikely and ugly Line of Control between the two communities. Road after road leading up to the highway, from Meitei areas to Kuki ones, is lined with the burnt remains of deserted homes and torched vehicles. Rifle-toting civilians man the multiple check-posts and bunkers that have come up, to ensure no vehicle from the “enemy zone” enters their territory.
The Meiteis have blocked the movement of civil supp lies—even for the armed forces—by road from Imphal to Churachandpur. The Kukis, on the other hand, have ensured that no Meiteis enter their district. On May 3, when ethnic clashes between the two communities broke out across Manipur, more than 6,000 Meiteis in Churachandpur fled the Kuki-dominated district. A State Bank of India ATM in the heart of the district has been non-functional for more than two months because its Meitei bank manager, who had access to the codes of the machine, left for the valley below. Likewise, thousands of Kukis vacated their homes in the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley, and headed to the hills inhabited by their tribesmen.
Across this tiny northeastern state of India, the territorial divide is more deeply etched than ever. With boundaries marked in blood, civilians on both sides have taken up arms to protect their territory. Holed up in bunkers dug on the fringes of the villages, or taking positions behind sandbags, men and women, young and old, take turns to guard their homes and ethnic pride. The law and order machinery of the state has collapsed completely, so much so that people on both sides publicly wield their weapons, many of which are licensed shotguns, but also AK automatics and even sniper rifles.
, nearly 500 injured and more than 60,000 displaced, 40,000 of whom are living in relief camps even now. Over 3,600 houses have been burnt, along with 321 places of worship. Untold atrocities, including rapes and beheadings, have taken place on both sides. And this despite the heavy security blanket in the state—it has the third-highest ratio of police personnel to civilians in India and large parts of it are under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958, with 161 companies of various central forces deployed. They include the Assam Rifles, a central paramilitary force, tasked to protect the state’s
