Bihar will evacuate its 122 students from Manipur in the wake of widespread violence and continuing tensions between different ethnic groups in the northeastern state.

A special flight with Bihar students will leave Manipur’s capital Imphal on Tuesday.

“Chief minister Nitish Kumar has directed the Bihar resident commissioner in Delhi to bring back the students studying in Manipur. He is sensitive about their well-being and return. Accordingly, a special flight will depart from Imphal airport at 6am and arrive at Patna at 7.35am,” the Bihar information and public relations department said in a statement released on Monday.

The students will be moved to the Imphal airport in buses escorted by security personnel.

A report by the Bihar resident commissioner Kundan Kumar reveals that 150 students from the state (Bihar) are stuck in Manipur. Altogether 62 of them are at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Manipur, 60 at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Manipur and 28 at the Manipur Agriculture College.

According to the report, only 122 of the stuck students have to be evacuated because those studying at the Manipur Agriculture College are feeling safe because of adequate security arrangements and have chosen to stay at the campus.

However, the Bihar government’s instructions and plans come after an inordinate delay. The students from Bihar have already spent six anxious days, worrying about their lives. Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and other states evacuated their students a couple of days ago.

The Bihar students, especially those at NIT Manipur, witnessed explosions, gunfire and arson in nearby villages and immediately understood the gravity of the situation. They got in touch with the Bihar resident commissioner in Delhi only to be told that the state government will not be able to provide them with air tickets.

“The problem was that a few air tickets to Calcutta were available and the fare had shot up several times. A majority of us could not afford it. Those who had the money also found it difficult to book the tickets as the internet was down. Booking tickets also would not have helped because curfew had been imposed and nobody was allowed to venture out. Only the government(s) could have helped in such a situation. Our government lagged in this,” a student from Bihar stuck at NIT Manipur told The Telegraph over the phone on Monday.

Remembering the first few days of the violence that started on May 3, the students said they worried and shivered out of fear after hearing the sounds of gunfire, blasts and cries for help.

“There is a village around 300 or 400 metres from the NIT Manipur campus. We witnessed explosions, gunfire and houses being torched on the evening the violence started. We heard the screams of people. Fear enveloped all of us. The only assuring thing was the CRPF camp located at our campus,” said Abhijeet Anand who hails from Araria in Bihar.

As the violence spread, it brought other problems. Electricity and water supplies were disrupted, while the quality of food also took a dip.