IDPs wear black badges on I-Day
Source: The Sangai Express

Bishnupur/Thoubal, August 16 2026: Internally displaced persons (IDPs) across Thoubal and Bishnupur districts staged sit-in protest demonstrations wearing black badges on Independence Day yesterday.

During the demonstrations at Wangjing Kodompokpi Sports Complex Relief Camp and Wangjing Lamding Higher Secondary School Relief Camp, IDPs denounced the Government of India for its failure to resolve the ongoing conflicts and bring about peace in Manipur.

Displaced by the conflict since May 2023, the IDPs decried that the Government has failed to create conditions for them to return to their original homes and villages even after more than 3 years.

The IDPs said Independence Day has little meaning when they are displaced and unable to return to their homes and restart their lives.

The whole of the country may be celebrating Independence Day, but for Manipur and her people, the future remains bleak in absence of any efforts to resolve the conflict, they said.

The IDPs are struggling to make ends meet and manage their daily lives with very little the Government has provided.

Under such conditions, the Independence Day and Har Ghar Tirangga campaign have little meaning, they added.

The IDPs held placards that read "Har Ghar Tiranga : Your Pride, Our Loss; Your Freedom, Our Cries; Your Peace, Our Pain etc.

"We too want to celebrate 'Har Ghar Tiranga' but we have no home," said the IDPs.

Protest demonstrations at Moirang College Relief Camp and Kwakta Relief Camp in Bishnupur also boycotted the I-Day.

The protest demonstrations were organised under the aegis of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) .

Comment