New Delhi: After several attempts to bring normalcy to Manipur yielded no results, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has started backchannel talks to bring peace to the region where ethnic violence has claimed over 100 lives in the last two months.
Sources said the central government has directed several senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries to start talks with different ethnic groups of Manipur. Accordingly, on June 30, several top BJP functionaries met Kuki-Zo civil society organisations and representatives of the United People's Front and the Kuki National Organisation-the conglomerate of 24 Kuki insurgent groups, in Assam's Kaziranga.
"As a result of the meeting, the Kuki groups have withdrawn the blockade from NH2," sources privy to the development told ETV Bharat in Delhi. The BJP functionaries will also meet with the Meitei groups in a bid to resolve the differences between the two communities. "As we got a positive response from the Kuki groups, we are expecting a similar response from the Meitei community as well," sources in the party said.
The MHA took the initiative after several of its attempts to bring normalcy to the strife-torn state showed no result. The government-appointed peace committee headed by Manipur Governor also failed to bring any change as several of its members withdrew their names from the committee. The Home Ministry has expressed concern after around 5,000 weapons were looted from the police armouries.
Significantly, after almost 63 days of ethnic violence, schools in Manipur have resumed classes from I to VIII standards from Wednesday. "During the inspection of schools on the first day of resumption of classes, the students expressed their happiness," a senior home ministry official keeping a close watch on Manipur affairs said.
Following the resumption of normal classes for classes I to VIII, out of 4617 schools, 96 schools could not be opened since they were being used for relief measures, the official said. The students displaced by the recent violence in the State are allowed to get admission free of cost in nearby feasible schools.
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