A Manipur-based social organisation boycotted the International Day of Yoga on Wednesday and held a public protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s act of leading a special yoga session at the UN headquarters in New York while Manipur was suffering.

“We are not against yoga or the International Yoga Day but we are against the Prime Minister’s visit to the US for the special yoga session at the UN without considering the suffering of the people of Manipur since May 3,” Romeshwar Waikhwa, president of the Thoubal Apunba Lup, organiser of the protest, told The Telegraph.

“We don’t need yoga in Manipur now. We need peace over yoga now because of the immense suffering of our people.”

There was no state government event to mark the day, given the unrest, officials said.

Thoubal Apunba Lup, the apex body of 36 civil society organisations, conducted the hour-long protest from 8 am at the Thoubal Melaground, about 20km from Imphal.

Over 300 people — members of clubs, women’s organisations and the public — participated in the protest, with women and students displaying placards critical of Modi.

At the end of the protest, some of the participants turned “emotional” and burnt effigies of Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and chief minister N. Biren Singh for their failure to control the situation in Manipur, Waikhwa said.

On Sunday, some residents of the Imphal West and Kakching market areas had boycotted the Prime Minister’s monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat and stomped on or burnt transistor sets to protest his continued silence on Manipur.

The violence between Meiteis and Kukis has left at least 110 people dead and displaced 60,000 since May 3.

The UN General Assembly declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga following a push from India under Modi’s leadership.

Waikhwa said the people of Manipur wanted the state and central governments to intervene and restore normality.

“The Prime Minister left for the US on Tuesday carrying the message of peace but a corner of India (Manipur) is burning. People are unhappy at his continued silence and the absence of any improvement in the ground situation since May 3,” he said.