All efforts being made to restore peace in Manipur on PM Modi’s instructions: Shah tells all-party meet

PTI, Jun 24, 2023, 8:06 PM IST

Image credit: ANI / File

New Delhi: All efforts are being made to restore peace in Manipur on instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah told an all-party meeting held on Saturday to discuss the prevailing situation in the northeastern state.

Shah also told the meeting that since the violence began in the state, there has “not been a single day” when he did not speak to Prime Minister Modi on the situation or the prime minister did not give instructions, the BJP’s Manipur in-charge Sambit Patra told reporters after the meeting.

The opposition parties have been critical of the Centre’s handling of the Manipur situation and have questioned the prime minister’s “silence” on the issue.

Nearly 120 people lost their lives and more than 3,000 have been injured since the ethnic violence broke out in the state.

“In his statement at the meeting, Amit Shah ji said very clearly that there was not a single day when he did not speak to the prime minister since the violence began on May 3.

“Efforts to restore peace in the state are being taken on the instructions of the prime minister,” Patra said.

The BJP leader said efforts were underway to maintain peace in the state.

“The good news for us is that no one has lost life since June 13. Efforts are on to ensure that this peace continues to remain in place in the state,” he told reporters.

At the meeting, Patra said, the home ministry gave a presentation on how the violence began in Manipur, what triggered the violence, what steps have been taken so far and what steps will be taken to restore peace in the state.

All party leaders, present at the meeting chaired by the home minister, raised their concerns and expressed their view “in a very sensitive manner, rising above political lines,” the BJP leader said.

“All political parties unanimously accepted that Home Minister Amit Shah’s three-day and three-night stay in Manipur was an unprecedented move as somewhere or the other, it brought in a sense of positivity and Manipur moved forward,” Patra, who was also present at the meeting, said.

The ethnic violence broke out in Manipur after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the state’s hill districts on May 3 to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

The violence was preceded by tension over the eviction of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land, which had led to a series of smaller agitations.