Part of the Manipur Crisis Chronicle. Every claim carries a cited source; contested numbers are shown with their dates, never merged. This installment covers 1–31 January 2025.
A new governor arrived, the year began with an apology on camera and ended its first week under blockade, and the political arithmetic of the state government publicly wobbled and then steadied — inside one news cycle.
On 31 December 2024 the Chief Minister closed the year by apologising to the people of Manipur and hoping peace would return in 2025, urging people to "forgive and forget".[163] The Hindu noted that Congress was asking why the Prime Minister had not apologised or even visited since the violence broke out.[163] In the same remarks the CM's tally ran behind the press tally: he said more than 200 people had died since May 2023, with 12,247 FIRs registered and 625 accused arrested.[163] He described the recovery of 5,600 arms and 35,000 rounds as "good progress" and said 7,549 people of 2,058 families had been resettled.[163] Outlets in January put the death toll higher: The Hindu wrote on 4 January of "more than 250 people have been killed".[146] India Today NE wrote "more than 260" on 17 January and "over 260" on 19 January.[155][156] The CM figure and the outlet figures are shown side by side, dated, and not merged.
The month's first crisis turned on the presence of central forces in Saibol (Bungpi fringe, Kangpokpi district). On 2 January the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), Sadar Hills, declared a 12-hour total shutdown "in protest against the Government's inaction on their demand for the withdrawal of central forces from Saibol", intensifying an ongoing indefinite economic blockade of National Highway 2.[149] On the night of 3–4 January a mob in Kangpokpi town attacked the district Superintendent of Police office; SP M. Prabhakar was injured, and police said protestors attacked with stones and petrol bombs.[146][148] The Hindu reported that locals protested to move central forces out of "a strategic Kuki village adjoining a Meitei-inhabited area".[148] A Hindustan Times video item the same week framed the year's opening as a "bad start to 2025" with a deputy commissioner's office attacked in Kangpokpi (perception layer, video description, 5 Jan). On 4 January CoTU extended the shutdown by another 24 hours over the "disregard for tribal rights and dignity" and the "stationed unjustly" deployment of central police forces in the tribal area.[148]
Hours later the standoff was resolved on paper: CoTU "officially ended the indefinite economic blockade along National Highway NH-2 and the extended 24-hour total shutdown".[150] The lift followed an agreement that the 112 CRPF Battalion stationed in Kangpokpi be deployed to the Bungpi fringe areas, specifically Saibol in Lhungtin sub-division, taking effect at 2:00 am on 5 January.[150] CoTU warned it would escalate if remaining CAPF units were not withdrawn within 48 hours.[150]
On 5 January the Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) lodged a complaint with the Kangpokpi SP accusing security forces of unlawful occupation, assaults and human rights violations in New Saibol and surrounding villages.[151] The complaint said CRPF, BSF and Manipur Police personnel entered the villages on 29 December 2024 "without consent", that security forces fired rocket launchers at "peacefully assembled" tribal Kuki women on 28 December, and that over 60 women were injured in a clash on 31 December 2024.[151] One woman, Neicy Mate (44), lost sight in her left eye, according to the complaint.[151] These are the complainants' allegations as reported by ITNE; the chronicle records them as claims, not established fact.
Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla was sworn in early January, days after his 24 December 2024 appointment recorded in the December installment.[135] The Hindu reported that he reviewed the state's security situation on 4 January "less than 24 hours after he was sworn in", instructing the DGP to prioritise safety and urging the Army and paramilitary forces to cooperate.[148] In a security review meeting he suggested the State police use legal options such as the National Security Act, 1980 (which provides detention for a year without trial) against miscreants and troublemakers — carried by The Hindu on 13 January, since the earlier 4 January article on the NSA suggestion is no longer retrievable (dead end logged).[166] On 18 January he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi for the first time since appointment; ITNE noted Bhalla, a former Union home secretary "handpicked by the home minister himself", was understood to have been given a mandate to bring back normalcy.[156] He also met the Kuki-Zo Council in Churachandpur before the council's 17 January delegation to the Centre.[155]
On 11–12 January a mob in Naga-majority Kamjong district stormed a makeshift Assam Rifles camp in Hongbei village and destroyed it, purportedly over harassment and restrictions on timber transport; the force vacated the premises on 12 January after an understanding with Tangkhul Naga civil society groups.[153] Assam Rifles dismissed the harassment allegations, saying personnel had stopped a timber vehicle lacking mandated documents and that "nefarious elements instigated the local population"; no casualty was reported.[153] On 13 January Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi said "cyclic incidents of violence are continuing but security forces are working to bring in peace", with enhanced surveillance along the Myanmar border and fencing in progress.[166] He also restated the MHA tally that Manipur accounted for 77% of violent incidents in the northeast in 2023, and the first-three-months figure of 3,023 FIRs.[166]
Two dated backfills surfaced in the January capture window, both December datelines, recorded here with their dates. The Hindu reported that on 24–25 December 2024 gunfights broke out between armed men and security forces at Thamnapokpi/Uyok Ching (Imphal East) and at Sinam Kom village in Kangpokpi, where armed "village volunteers" at the foothills retaliated against firing from hilltops; no injuries were reported.[164] And on 17 December 2024 police said eight cadres of the banned Kangleipak Communist Party (People's War Group) were arrested from Kakching district in connection with the killing of the two Bihar migrant labourers, recovering arms, ammunition and 10 mobile phones.[165] Those arrests' dateline predates January; they close the Keirak thread of the December installment, whose CM response (terrorism framing, ₹10 lakh ex-gratia, NIA-if-needed) was recorded there.[134]
On 12 January COCOMI alleged a "discreet and strategic nexus" between security agencies and Chin-Kuki armed groups, centring on an incident of 18 December in which supplies meant for a CRPF camp were reportedly diverted to Molhang Kuki Village, "a known stronghold of Kuki militants".[157] COCOMI argued the conflict is "a state-driven proxy war", with collaboration including "intelligence sharing and selective inaction during critical operations", and demanded an independent inquiry.[157] This is reported as an allegation.
On 17 January a four-member delegation of the Kuki-Zo Council, led by chairman Henlianthang Thanglet, placed before the Centre's interlocutor A K Mishra its demand for a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo people and a political dialogue.[155] The community's stated goal is a Union Territory with a legislature under Article 239(A) for hill areas, and the council seeks complete adherence to the buffer zone by Meiteis.[155]
On 25 January, on reports of a secret underground tunnel at the Myanmar-India border allegedly used for drug smuggling (reportedly able to accommodate heavy vehicles), COCOMI demanded the government declare a "Narco-Terrorist Emergency" in the northeast.[158] COCOMI argued "The ongoing crisis in Manipur cannot be dismissed as a mere ethnic conflict" and sought investigation into influential entities in Manipur, Mizoram and Chin State.[158] This is reported as an organisation demand.
On 28 January Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna indicated the Supreme Court might advance the hearing of a plea by the Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust (advocate Prashant Bhushan) seeking an SIT probe into the leaked audio tapes allegedly featuring the CM; the case stood scheduled for 7 February 2025.[159] The petition alleges the tapes, leaked by a whistleblower, contain conversations in which the CM instigated violence.[159] This continues the tapes saga, whose November 2024 milestone (SC agreeing to examine the tapes) was recorded in the November installment.[114]
The sharpest perception event of the month was a 48-hour political round-trip, reported in three ITNE pieces.[160][161][162] On 22 January the Manipur unit of Janata Dal (United) formally ended its alliance with the BJP-led government, placing the party's sole MLA, Md. Abdul Nasir, on the opposition bench.[160] The unit's letter to the CM said six JD(U) candidates were elected in 2022 but five defected to the BJP within months, with the defection matter under the Tenth Schedule in the Speaker's Tribunal.[160] Hours later, JD(U) national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad called the reports "misleading and baseless", saying the Manipur unit president wrote the letter on his own: "Considering this an act of indiscipline, action has been taken against him and relieved of his position."[161] On 23 January the lone MLA Nasir announced he would continue supporting the BJP government, disassociating himself from the unit president's letter via a video statement.[162]
The cluster notes: the unit president who wrote the withdrawal letter is Ksh. Biren Singh — a name colliding with Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, itself a confusion vector.[162] The withdrawal story entered the record first (22 January), the denial within hours (22 January), and the MLA's affirmation a day later (23 January) — three registers, each carried verbatim, none merged.[160][161][162]
On 5 January, 26 Myanmar nationals who had crossed through the porous border were deported; the administration reiterated "its strict policy against permitting illegal migrants to remain in the state, highlighting the need to balance compassion with adherence to immigration laws".[152] This continues the deportation series recorded in earlier installments (38 Myanmarese deported in early May 2024).[60]
Outlet concentration: 14 of 17 in-window sources this month are India Today NE; only The Hindu (4 January x2, 13 January) and a Hindustan Times perception item round out the record. The month is therefore strongest for official and community statements relayed to ITNE, thinner for independent on-the-ground reporting; this is flagged, not fixed. First drafts: the CM's apology and the Kangpokpi office attack set the opening frame ("bad start to 2025") before the CoTU agreement or the governor's moves were reported. Number discipline: the death tally is cited per-source with dates (200+ CM / 250+ Hindu / 260+ ITNE); the CM's December figures (5,600 arms; 35,000 rounds) are shown dated and not merged with the October-2023-record figures. Dead ends: The Hindu's 4 January article on the governor's NSA suggestion 404s live with no Wayback capture; ITNE's 11 January Congress ₹627-crore story 404s live with no Wayback capture; both URLs remain registered in the ledger, uncited. Perception layer (2026-limited): YouTube's evergreen items — e.g. a May 2025 Times of India two-years video asserting "over 260 people have been killed and more than 70,000 displaced" plus claims that the CM resigned, President's Rule was imposed, and the PM had still not visited — are perception data, not factual evidence; the resignation/President's-Rule claims postdate January 2025 and are not part of this month's record.