Despite the BJP-led State governments claims of demolished bunkers, villagers in both Meitei and Kuki areas say they are using makeshift bunkers to defend themselves from attack by the other side
Two weeks after the Manipur government’s deadline to remove all bunkers across the State, in both the Kuki-dominated hills and Meitei-dominated valley, The Hindu found that though many bunkers were destroyed in the buffer zones, many others exist and remain functional in both regions.
On the road from Imphal towards Churachandpur, lies the Meitei-dominated district of Bishnupur. Almost 100 metres away from the main road, a 17-year-old Meitei volunteer guards a bunker, a tin-and-bamboo structure, with a hunting gun. Under his leadership are two more adolescent boys, all carrying firearms. They are standing there to protect their village from the Kukis, they say.
