Imphal, September 5: Full curfew was clamped in all the five valley districts of Manipur as a preventive measure from Tuesday evening, officials said. The cancellation of curfew relaxation hours in Bishnupur, Kakching, Thoubal, Imphal West and Imphal East comes in the wake of the call by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) and its women wing requesting people from all parts of the valley districts to remove an army barricade at Phougakchao Ikhai in Bishnupur district, a few kilometres away from Churachandpur, on Wednesday, officials said.

Currently, there is curfew relaxation in all the five valley districts from 5am to 6pm daily. In a hurriedly called press conference, government spokesperson and Information and Public Relations Minister Sapam Ranjan said, "The government appeals to COCOMI to withdraw the proposed plan to storm the army barricade at Phougakchao Ikhai near Torbung on September 6."Sapam also requested all "to support the security steps taken up by the government." Manipur Violence: Five Killed, 20 Injured in State in Last Three Days, Non-Stop Firing Still On

Movement of persons belonging to essential services such as health, electricity, PHED, petrol pumps, schools/colleges, municipality, media, functioning of courts and flight passengers shall be exempted from the curfew, officials said. COCOMI media coordinator Somendro Thokchom said the committee had earlier urged the government and the authorities concerned to remove the barricade by August 30. Manipur Assembly Session 2023: State Assembly Adjourned Sine Die After Congress MLAs Demand Extension of Special Session

While urging people to storm the barricade, Thokchom said the state government should bear full responsibility if anything untoward happens.

Locals said because of the barricade at Phougakchao Ikhai, they were not able to visit their residences at Torbung, which they had vacated after violence broke out on May 3.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)