Manipur: Six insurgent groups calls for 18-hour shutdown on Republic Day

Imphal: The Coordination Committee (CorCom), an apex body of six banned outlawed has given an 18-hour total shutdown in the northeastern state announcing to boycott the India’s Republic Day, which falls on January 26.

In a statement, the total shutdown would start from midnight on January 25 until 6 pm on January 26. However, emergency services including media, religious activities, medical, water supplies, and fire services will be exempted during the shutdown.

While India celebrates January 26 as Republic Day, for the people of Manipur, it is better known as the ‘Repressive Day,’ the statement said.

The  CorCom states that there is no reason for the state to celebrate Republic Day because of experiencing a bloody conflict for over eight months in the state. Instead, the day should be observed as a “Black Day” by the people by hoisting a black flag atop every house in the region, it added.

Blaming the Union government for everything that is happening today, the statement said that the ongoing crisis has devastated Manipur.

CorCom is an apex body of six banned outlawed demanding restoration of lost severity the princely state Manipur once had had before 1949, the year Manipur merged with the Indian Union.

The CorCom groups are —the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), its Progressive faction (PREPAK-Pro), Revolutionary People's Front (RPF, the political wing of the People's Liberation Army- PLA), and United National Liberation Front (UNLF).