The Joint Action Committee (JAC), formed to secure the release of the two Meitei youths abducted by Kuki militants on Friday, extended the ambit of their ongoing 48-hour Thoubal district bandh to cover the entire strife-hit state on Wednesday.

The first phase of the bandh affected normal life in Thoubal district of Manipur on Tuesday.

The JAC, however, made the bandh statewide by Tuesday night as concern and tension rose over the fate of the youths, a move which will impact life in the six Meitei-majaory Imphal valley districts in protest against the administration’s “inability” to secure the safe release of the two youths who went missing on Friday afternoon from Kangpokpi district.

Normal life was affected in Thoubal district of strife-hit Manipur on Tuesday owing to the 48-hour bandh in protest against the abduction of two youths by suspected Kuki militants from Kangpokpi district on Friday, adversely impacting traffic on Asian Highway 1 connecting Imphal with Myanmar via Thoubal.

The kidnapping case was also flagged at a press meet in Geneva on Monday by the Imphal-based International Peace and Social Development.

Addressing the media in Geneva on Monday, Khuraijam Athouba, working president of IPSA and COCOMI spokesperson, to draw the attention of the UN and international community, “raised the issue of the hostage-taking situation in Manipur in reference to the abduction of two Meitei youths allegedly by Kuki militants”.

He condemned hostage-taking as an “act of absurdity and terrorism”.

“Such an act of terror re-affirms the ulterior motive of the armed immigrant Chin-Kuki militants aggression, and thus confirming that the situation in Manipur is not a conflict between ethnic groups,” said Athouba, who is attending the 54th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council from September 11 to October 13 in Geneva.