Schools, colleges in Manipur’s Imphal Valley, Jiribam district reopen

Schools and colleges in Manipur’s Imphal Valley and Jiribam district resumed classes on Friday after a hiatus of 13 days, officials said.

Students in their school uniforms and parents were seen waiting for buses in the state’s capital Imphal with the law and order situation improving in the valley districts.

The Directorate of Education Schools and the Higher and Technical Education Department had on Thursday ordered the resumption of classes in Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Kakching, Thoubal and Jiribam districts.

K Biken Singh, a central government official whose two children study in a private school in Imphal, said, “It is a great relief that schools have reopened. Final exams of my children, who are in Class 6 and Class 7, were scheduled to start from the second week of December and parts of the syllabus are yet to be completed. Reopening of schools will allow the teachers to interact with their students.”

Educational institutes in the valley districts and Jiribam have remained closed since November 16 after dead bodies of three women and three children in Jiribam were recovered from the Jiri and Barak rivers in Manipur and Assam respectively.

Meanwhile, the state government ordered relaxation of curfew from 5 am to 4 pm on Friday in all five valley districts and Jiribam to enable people to purchase essential items and medicines, according to an official order.

According to a government order, “Due to developing law and orders situation in the districts, there is a need to relax restrictions on the movement of people to facilitate the public to purchase essential items including medicines and food items. Restriction of movement of people outside their residences is hereby lifted for Friday from 5 am to 4 pm.”

District Magistrates of Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Kakching and Thoubal issued the order separately.

“The relaxation, however, shall not include any gathering/sit-in/rally without obtaining approval through competent authority,” the order read.

Violence had escalated in Manipur after three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had gone missing from a relief camp in Jiribam after a gunfight between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants resulted in the deaths of 10 insurgents on November 11.

Bodies of those six were later found.

More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.