A students’ organisation in Manipur has imposed an indefinite “economic blockade” on NH2 to protest the ban on mobile Internet services in the violence-hit state.

The Senapati District Students’ Association (SDSA) imposed the blockade on the critical Dimapur-Senapati-Imphal National Highway 2 from 6pm Thursday after its 24-hour deadline to the Manipur government to lift the ban on mobile Internet services ended.

NH2 connects Dimapur in Nagaland with Imphal and is about 203km long, passing through Senapati district. It is considered a lifeline for ferrying goods and commuting in Manipur.

The blockade, which entered its second day on Friday afternoon, has affected only commercial vehicles, a Senapati resident said.

The trigger for the blockade, the SDSA said, was the extension of the Internet ban in “our district where there is currently no law-and-order situation”.

The SDSA wanted the government to lift the ban because it considers Naga-majority Senapati to be a “peace zone”. The organisation believes that access to the Internet is a “fundamental right that every citizen should enjoy without interruption”. The Naga
community has remained neutral in the Meitei-Kuki conflict.

Mobile Internet services had been completely restored in the state after 143 days on October 23 owing to the “improved” law-and-order situation, but was reimposed after three days following widespread protests in Imphal valley after the photographs of two deceased Meitei students who had gone missing from Imphal on July 6 surfaced on social media on September 25.