The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (Cocomi), a conglomerate of leading Meitei civil society organisations, on Tuesday announced a “total shutdown” of state and central government offices in Manipur for two days starting Wednesday in protest against the Biren Singh government’s “inability” to address its demands.

Besides the two-day shutdown of the offices, except those dealing with emergency services, the organisation has also decided to boycott Union home minister Amit Shah till the ongoing conflictis resolved, a Cocomi member said.

The organisation demanded a review of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) reimposed by the ministry of home affairs in six police station areas on November 14; action against all Kuki-Zo militants involved in fanning the ongoing unrest, including those involved in the recent abduction and subsequent killing of six Meitei relief camp inmates in Jiribam district; and declare certain Kuki-Zo outfits as unlawful organisations.

Cocomi, like most valley-based organisations, wants the contentious Afspa, the central law that gives unbridled powers to forces operating in areas declared as disturbed, withdrawn from the six police station areas.

The organisation had suspended its indefinite sit-in triggered by the abduction and killing of the relief campinmates at Borobekra in Jiribam district for seven days starting November 19 following “assurances” from Biren Singh that their demands would be looked into, a Cocomi member had said on November 20.

He had said that the state government’s inability to meet their demands would lead to protests by locking central and state offices. When no decisive action was taken within the stipulated time, the organisation on Tuesday announced a total shutdown of the offices, Cocomi coordinator Th. Somorendro said in Imphal.

The vendors at Ema Keithel, the woman-only market in Imphal, had slammed Cocomi when the organisation suspended the sit-in launched in protest against the abduction and killing of the three women and as many minors by suspected Kuki-Zo “militants”. During the sit-in, the Cocomi students’ wing had locked the chief electoral office in Imphal.

Cocomi and the women vendors had jointly launched the sit-in on November 16, prompting the chief minister to call a meeting of the ruling NDA MLAs where they had adopted several resolutions. The November 18 resolution of the MLAs said: “If the above resolutions taken are not implemented within the specified period, all the NDA legislators will decide the future course of action in consultation with the people of the state.”

Hunt for missing

The army in a statement issued on Tuesday night said that it had launched “a massive operation” to trace a 54-year-old Meitei man, Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a resident of Cachar district of neighbouring Assam, working as a work supervisor for a contractor working with Military Engineering Services at the Leimakhong Military Station in Imphal.

The army said Laishram’s family had reported that he did not return home onMonday evening. The army activated “all its resources” to trace him but neither him nor his two-wheeler could be located.

The army has scanned CCTV feed, spoken to his co-workers and used sniffer dogs, “drones and other aerial platforms” during the search operation spread across the military station and adjoining villages, the statement said.