Part of the Manipur Crisis Chronicle. Every claim carries a cited source; contested numbers are shown with their dates, never merged. This installment covers 1–20 April 2026, with the month's spine in the first week.
**Shah's peace-acceleration review (1 Apr).** Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh "to accelerate the ongoing peace process in the State" at a Parliament House meeting, "and approved the creation of an all-woman police battalion, according to a Manipur Government statement." The statement said Shah "agreed in principle to raising a Mahila India Reserve Battalion (IRB) for the State and asked Mr. Singh to send the proposal." The same report carried the Zomi Coordination Committee's March 31 notice that the month-long Zomi National Mourning for ex-MLA Vungzagin Valte "has concluded, and in the absence of a meaningful response... democratic agitations would begin across Zomi areas in a phased and coordinated manner." The article's background line: ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities "erupted in the State on May 3, 2023" and "has claimed around 250 lives so far."[430]
**Four arrests at the Myanmar border (4 Apr).** Police arrested four militants near the India-Myanmar border in Tengnoupal district, from Yangoubung village in the Moreh police station area, identified as Keisham Sumanta Meitei (25, People's Liberation Army), Angom Somorjit Singh (32, NRFM), and Yumnam Naoba Singh (26) and Khundrakpam Shyamson Meitei (25) of the Kangleipak Communist Party (MFL). Police said "intelligence-based combing, cordon-and-search operations are being carried out extensively to nab those involved in extortion and criminal activities in the State."[431]
At about 1 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7, a bomb hit a house at Moirang Tronglaobi in Bishnupur district, killing a five-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl and injuring their mother.[429][436][437] The Hindu's police-sourced account: "a bomb was hurled by suspected militants at a house in Moirang Tronglaobi area."[429] The Wikipedia article's account: "A bomb attack took place on 7 April 2026 at a village called Tronglaobi near Moirang in the Imphal Valley... The blast hit a civilian house at 1:00 a.m. and resulted in the death of two children and critical injuriy to their mother," and — "Coming after a year of relative calm in the Imphal Valley during the President's Rule, the incident caused significant outrage among the Meitei community, which automatically blamed the Kuki people for the bombing."[437] The later family account (9 Apr) describes the children as "five years old" and "his 5-month-old sister" — a six-month vs five-month age conflict with the police-sourced reports of April 7, shown not merged.[433][429]
CM Khemchand Singh ordered the probe handed to the National Investigation Agency the same day, condemning the attack as a "barbaric act", the "handiwork of individuals or groups with vested interests in disturbing the prevailing peace in the state"; he said the perpetrators had not yet been identified and a large-scale combing operation was underway, with state police, Assam Rifles and CRPF deployed and aerial surveillance used.[436]
The attack triggered immediate protests. Locals "torched two oil tankers and a truck near a petrol pump," "burnt tyres in front of the Moirang Police Station and destroyed a makeshift police outpost," per police cited by The Hindu.[429] A mob then stormed a CRPF camp near Gelmol. Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam: "two people were killed and five others injured in firing after a mob stormed a CRPF camp in Bishnupur during the unrest"; he said the demonstrators "stormed the CRPF camp, burnt vehicles and vandalised portions of the camp, leading to firing by security personnel... They fired either in self-defence or in anger. Two persons, unfortunately, died in the firing, while five others sustained bullet injuries."[436] The New Indian Express's account: the camp is "located about 200 metres from the place of the bomb attack" and the mob attacked "as the personnel had failed to prevent the bomb attack"; "the personnel opened fire to control the situation, and five protesters sustained bullet wounds."[434] The Wikipedia article's account differs on the injury count: "about 500 angry protesters attacked a nearby CRPF camp... During the rioting, two protesters were shot dead, another thirty-one protesters suffered gunshot wounds, and a third protester died of injuries on 8 April" — five vs thirty-one injured, shown not merged.[437][436][434]
**Internet suspension and CM meeting (7-8 Apr).** The Manipur government ordered "suspension of internet and mobile data services, including Broadband, VSATs and VPN in five valley districts for three days," signed by Commissioner (Home) N. Ashok Kumar; the districts were Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal, Kakching and Bishnupur.[429] CM Khemchand chaired a high-level meeting with MLAs at the secretariat ("to review the prevailing situation and deliberate on necessary measures to de-escalate tensions," per his X post).[429] The Wikipedia article places the suspension under "Rule 3 of the Temporary Suspension of Telecommunication Services Rules, 2024."[437]
On Wednesday, April 8, "a third person died at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in the State's capital, Imphal" — one of "three [who] were in a mob that attacked a camp of the Central Reserve Force near Tronglaobi, accusing the force of failing to protect valley dwellers from armed extremists in the adjoining hills of Churachandpur district." The New Indian Express headlined the same sequence as the toll reaching five: "A five-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl were killed in a bomb attack, while two protestors succumbed to injuries on Tuesday after central forces opened fire on them," and a further protester "succumbed to his injuries, taking the total death toll in the sudden flare-up to five."[434] The authorities imposed "restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita" across all five valley districts, and "broadband services were restored conditionally" after a review; CM Khemchand chaired a Unified Command meeting of security forces and intelligence agencies "to review the prevailing law-and-order situation in Manipur."[432] "Tension spiked after security forces prevented various groups, including the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, from organising protest rallies" on April 8.[432]
At a New Delhi press conference organised by Meitei civil-society groups on April 9, the children's paternal grandfather, Oinam Babuton, "virtually addressed a press conference, calling for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators, who he believed were 'Kuki militants'": "There has to be an end to Meitei civilians being attacked and killed by these militants."[433] The family background reported by The Hindu: "One of the children was five years old, and the other was his 5-month-old sister. The April 7 morning attack on the family's home in Tronglaobi killed the children in their sleep and seriously injured their mother, a Guwahati-based nurse on maternity leave. Her husband, a Border Security Force personnel, is posted outside Manipur."[433] The Meitei CSOs (Meitei Heritage Society, Delhi Manipur Society, and others) called for "exemplary punishment", dismantling of the "infrastructure of Kuki militancy", and said the failure to prevent such attacks "reinforces growing perception among the general public that Kuki militants are being deliberately treated with softness for other vested interests"; "The so-called peace initiative by the government appears to be a farce simply because no peace effort can progress, if you allow these militants to bomb babies to death."[433] The government said the case had been handed to the NIA and that "it had launched operations for apprehending the perpetrators of the attack 'dead or alive'."[433]
On April 18, "suspected militants fired at an Ukhrul-bound convoy of civilian vehicles coming from Imphal," killing "a retired Army man and another person" at TM Kasom village in Ukhrul district — "a day after Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh visited the Tangkhul Naga-majority hill district and appealed for peace and dialogue."[435] The United Naga Council called a three-day "total shutdown" beginning Monday April 20 to condemn the deaths; the women's organisation Meira Paibis called a five-day shutdown from Sunday April 19 to protest the Tronglaobi attack.[435] By April 20, "educational institutions and markets remained closed, while public transport remained off the roads in all five valley districts... and Naga-inhabited areas of Ukhrul and Senapati districts," with sit-ins at Uripok and Nagaram in the capital.[435] This later report restates the protest-firing toll as "three people were killed and around 30 others were injured in firing when a mob stormed a nearby CRPF camp" — three killed and about thirty injured, versus two-and-five on April 7 and thirty-one injured per Wikipedia; the counts are dated and shown not merged.[435][436][437]