Mobile internet back in Manipur after 143 days, 2nd longest after J&K’s 552-day blackout

GUWAHATI: Browsers and bookmarks on phones sprung back to life in strife-ridden Manipur on Saturday after 143 days as the BJP-led state government ended the country’s second longest mobile internet blackout after the one in J&K since August 4, 2019, that lasted a record 552 days.

The return of mobile internet coincided with the administration lifting total curfew for a day in the twin valley districts of Imphal East and West, where sporadic clashes and sundry law-and-order violations the past week had kept the pot boiling amid a semblance of calm elsewhere almost five months of ethnic unrest.