Manipur: Curfew relaxed till 10 pm in Imphal districts

The Manipur government has extended curfew timings for all regions in the Imphal East and Imphal West districts from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday (October 21), instead of the usual 7 p.m.

Following the continuous state-wide violence, which began on May 3 and has been in effect since then, a total curfew was imposed in Imphal West, Imphal East, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, and other valley districts.

In the recent past, when the situation gradually returned to normality, it was loosened from 5am to 6pm on most days and subsequently up to 7pm in Imphal West and Imphal East. However, it was frequently rescinded without warning owing to new episodes of violence.

The orders issued on Friday by the respective district magistrates of Imphal East and Imphal West stated that the curfew has been relaxed “due to the improvement of law and order situation”.

“There is a necessity to relax the restriction of movement to facilitate the general public to purchasing essential items including medicines and food items etc,” Imphal East magistrate said in the order.

“This relaxation shall, however, not apply to any gatherings/large-scale movement of persons/sit-in-protests/rallies etc, which is unlawful in nature,” the order said.

“However, movement of persons belonging to essential services such as health, electricity, PHED, petrol pumps, schools/colleges, municipality, press and electronic media, functioning of courts and to and fro movement of flight passengers to the airport and contractor/worker with valid airport entry permit card will be exempted from the imposition of curfew,” the order of additional district magistrate, Imphal West, said.

It may be noted that both Imphal East and Imphal West district authorities had once extended the relaxed curfew timing for all areas under the above districts from 5am to 9pm on September 14 against the usual timing of 5am to 6pm.

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