बेबाक · Editorial
Manipur's Firewood Killings Show the State Still Cannot Guarantee Safe Passage
Three civilians killed collecting firewood on the Imphal East–Kangpokpi border show Manipur's security grid still fails the people it exists to protect.
What happened Monday
On Monday, suspected militants attacked a group of firewood collectors in the hills along the Imphal East–Kangpokpi district border. Three people were killed and three injured, according to multiple reports. IANS, quoting police, reported that three people were missing after separate incidents in Imphal East and Thoubal districts. The victims were not combatants. They were civilians doing what the rural poor across India do every day: gathering fuel to cook. That such ordinary work can still end in death on a known fault line is the plainest measure of how incomplete Manipur's return to normalcy remains.
Grief at the gate
The anger that followed was predictable. Protesters placed the bodies of two Meitei men outside the Chief Minister's bungalow in Babupara, Imphal. Police intervened and, according to reports, fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Placing the dead before the seat of government is a desperate act. It also carries a message that cannot be dispersed with tear gas: families no longer believe the ordinary channels of complaint and protection will answer them. The Chief Minister has condemned the killings and ordered tighter security in vulnerable areas. That is the right instinct, but it arrives after the fact.
Two truths, held together
The case for the authorities deserves a fair hearing. The Imphal East–Kangpokpi border runs through difficult hill terrain where armed groups can move with local knowledge, and no force can guard every slope. Ordering more security is a reasonable response. The case of the bereaved is just as serious. These border zones are known flashpoints. Civilians still had to enter them unprotected for something as basic as fuel, and that points to a failure of planning, not of chance. Attribution remains contested: one report names Kuki militants, while most reports say only suspected militants. Blame must wait for an investigation, not for whichever community grieves loudest.
An administration under strain
A quieter sign of strain has also surfaced. Naga civil society organisations have urged the Chief Minister to revoke the transfer of Kamjong Superintendent of Police Tholu Rocky, and have strongly criticised the decision. The report rests on a single source, and it does not set out the reasons for the transfer. Still, the episode matters. In a state where every community watches the police for signs of partiality, postings and transfers are read as political signals. Each district needs officers it trusts, and each community needs to see decisions explained rather than simply announced. Credibility, once spent, is hard to win back in Manipur.
The verdict
Condemnation is necessary but not sufficient. Repeated cycles of violence have taught Manipur's people that statements follow funerals and patrols follow protests, and then attention moves on. A state that cannot protect a citizen gathering firewood has not restored order; it has only paused the reporting of disorder. The test of governance here is not how quickly an office issues a statement. It is whether a farmer, a woodcutter or a schoolchild can cross a district line without calculating their odds. On Monday, three people lost that calculation.
What must follow
Four steps are within reach. First, the State government and central security forces should identify the buffer and border zones where civilians must go for fuel, fodder and farming, and provide escorted access there. Second, the missing persons must be traced, with progress reported publicly. Third, a time-bound investigation by an agency trusted across communities should establish who carried out Monday's attack, and the findings should be released. Fourth, transfers of district police chiefs in sensitive areas should come with stated reasons. Trust is built in exactly these small, unglamorous ways.
A state that cannot protect a citizen gathering firewood has not restored order; it has only paused the reporting of disorder.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the FarziUPSC desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →