Jangmal Mangte has had a tense week at his village, Sangaikot, in the hilly Churachandpur district of Manipur. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to the state since the conflict, Mangte, commander of the Sangaikot Village Volunteers unit—tasked with maintaining law and order in the village—is on high alert.
The time, he says, is ripe for potential miscreants from the valley or hills to foment trouble "to make the Kukis look bad". His team is working long hours and coordinating with local civil society organisations, district administration, locals, and the shadowy armed groups that remain pervasively powerful across the state, to ensure peace on the day of the visit.
But it isn't the long hours that have been giving him sleepless nights.
It's the dismantling of the commemorative dummy coffins—and the Wall of Remembrance—that the community had put up at the entrance to Churanchandpur district. On 8 September, officials from the district administration removed the installation.