The Precarity of Peace in Manipur

Healing of ethnic tensions will happen with time, but communitarian groups need to do their bit

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The fresh wave of clashes in Manipur underlines the precariousness of peace in this border state that has been inching slowly towards normalcy after nearly two years of ethnic violence. On Saturday, one person was killed and several injured when mobs protesting against the administration's attempt to facilitate inter-district movement of civilians and goods clashed with the security forces in Kangpokpi district. Various Kuki groups have been insisting that they will allow key roads, among them the two national highways, to be opened for travel and transport only after the administration accepts eight demands, among them a separate administration in the form of a Union Territory in the Kuki-dominated hill districts of Manipur.