4 min readGuwahati, ImphalUpdated: Apr 19, 2026 05:00 AM IST
Large-scale protests, night curfews, occasional clashes with security forces, and curbs on the movement of goods – these are the scenes playing out in Manipur’s valley areas nearly two weeks after two children were killed by a projectile that landed inside their home in Bishnupur.
For two consecutive nights in the capital Imphal, massive rallies with hundreds of protesters carrying torches have been carried out in defiance of the night curfew imposed in the aftermath of the April 7 attack in Tronglaobi village. The killing of the siblings – a boy aged five years and a five-month-old girl – sparked outrage in the state’s Meitei-majority valley at a scale not seen in over a year.
While this tension continues to simmer, the state Home Department on Saturday lifted the ban on mobile internet services, which had been in place in the five valley districts of Bishnupur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Kakching since April 7.
On Friday night, hundreds of protesters, mostly women bearing torches, began a rally from Chingarel in Imphal East, raising slogans of “deliver justice to the two minors”, “book the culprits”, and “withdraw central security forces from Manipur.” This rally was met with tear gas shells as protesters tried to force through security barricades put up at Lamlong Bazaar.
The previous night, a similar rally was stopped by security forces at Singjamei crossing, just around 600 metres from Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh’s private residence. When some protesters tried to march forward chanting, a confrontation broke out between them and the security forces. Security forces fired multiple rounds of tear gas shells and “mock bombs” to disperse the protesters, who in turn pelted stones at them. In the clash, which lasted till late midnight, at least five people were injured.
Alongside these rallies, sit-in protests have been held regularly across various locations since the April 7 incident.
Sanjoy Sorokhaibam, president of AMUCO (All Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation), one of the civil organisations leading these protests, said that the main demand being raised is the withdrawal of central security forces from the state.
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“So much violence has happened right in front of the central forces, but there has been a complete failure of the central government and the security forces to act on these. Instead, they attack civilians,” he said, referring to the incident soon after the Tronglaobi attack when an agitated mob tried to storm a nearby CRPF post and three people were killed when the personnel there opened fire.
A security official in the state said that another setback is the movement of vehicles and goods, with women protesters setting up “check posts” – which were ubiquitous across the state in the early days of the ongoing conflict – along the road from Bishnupur to the Kuki-Zomi-majority Churachandpur district.
“Since the day of the Tronglaobi incident itself, there have been protesters blocking and checking the movement of vehicles and security forces, one of the results of which is that vehicles carrying goods and supplies from Imphal are not able to travel to Churachandpur,” he said.
The Tronglaobi attack is under investigation by the NIA, and Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam has said that five suspected cadres of the United Kuki National Army have been arrested in connection with the probe. However, as reported by The Indian Express, investigators are also probing the involvement of “local elements” in the attack, since the launcher of the shell was recovered only about 100 metres from the home of the victims. Officials have also linked the attack to an attempt at the “destabilisation” of the new state government formed under Yumnam Khemchand Singh in February this year, after a year of President’s Rule.
