Agartala : Altogether 208 students of Tripura, who have been studying in violence-hit Manipur, have returned to their home state safely, a senior official said on Sunday. Twenty-one more students are still waiting at Imphal airport there to catch an Agartala-bound flight, he said.

Chief Minister Manik Saha expressed happiness over the safe return of the students. “Happy to see the 1st group of people arrived from Manipur safely. Gradually, all the persons stranded there will be brought back. I thank our PM Narendra Modi Home Minister Amit Shah, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia & CM-Manipur N Biren Singh for the constant support,” Saha said in a Facebook post.

State Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, who welcomed the students at Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya airport here on Sunday, said they have returned safely because of “the chief minister’s bold decision”. “It is good that the students have come back home safely after three-day’s of tension and uncertainty in Manipur.

This has been possible because of the chief minister’s bold decision… It demonstrates the state government’s commitment towards ‘sabka saath sabka vikash and sabka viswas,” Chowdhury told reporters at the airport.
As many as 171 students – all studying at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Manipur’s Imphal- have returned directly from there by a special flight early on Sunday and another batch of 37 students have also been brought back, an official of the Chief Minister’s Office said.

“Twenty-one stranded students, who have contacted the state authorities late, are still waiting at Imphal airport and two officials are there to assist them,” he said. The government will reimburse air tickets of all the students, he said.
Life, however, started limping back to normalcy under the watchful eyes of army drones and helicopters deployed for aerial reconnaissance as curfew was relaxed on Sunday in parts of Manipur which witnessed bloody ethnic rioting over the last few days.

Violent clashes broke out between tribals and people belonging to the majority Meitei community in Manipur on Wednesday, displacing thousands of people. The clashes broke out after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the ten hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley. Tribals — Nagas and Kukis — constitute another 40 percent of the population and reside mostly in the hill districts.