“At first I found it hard to adapt… none of our teachers, classmates, friends were around.” Lamneiting Haokip, 18, pauses here. Running her finger down her Geography textbook, she adds, in a nervous giggle: “I know these are very small things compared to everything else….”Twelve days ago, Lamneiting and 50 others were ferried through the night from their residential school, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in Ramva Ukhrul, past angry crowds and conflict-torn villages, to JNV Kangpokpi – so that 18 among them appearing for their Class 10 and 12 CBSE Board exams, including Lamneiting, could do so in peace.The Ukhrul school is in a Tangkhul Naga-majority area, and Kuki students of this JNV – part of the network of schools run by the Central government for “gifted” students in rural areas – were deemed unsafe in a new flashpoint in the conflict-scarred Manipur.The students, between the ages of 12 and 19, arrived at JNV Kangpokpi – in a Kuki-majority area – on February 16, just a day ahead of the first paper in the Class 10 board exams, Mathematics.Mangminhao Haokip, 17, who is appearing for the Class 10 boards, says that was for the best. “We didn’t need any last-minute studying for the subject.” He is also confident that all three papers he has written so far have gone “well”, giving him bigger hope – that “everything will be fine”. At a relief camp set up for displaced families in Lamlai Chingphei village, where Gracie, who is in Class 6, was taken by her aunt. (Express Photo by Sukrita Baruah)The new divideOne of 11 JNVs in Manipur, the school in Ramva Ukhrul has 526 students in its ranks – both boys and girls, as JNVs are co-educational.Story continues below this adOn February 7, tension erupted between the Tangkhul Nagas and Kukis in the area, with Litan Sareikong village the epicentre of the violence. The 51 moved to JNV Kangpokpi are from a cluster of Kuki settlements in and around the village.JNV Ramva Ukhrul is 17 km from here. Apart from the distance, the fact that they were in a residential school meant the students were untouched by the tensions.“We spoke to our parents (on February 7), and knew that something was happening. But my father was not worried… he said the school was the safest place my siblings and I could be,” says Lamneiting.When instructions came that they were to move, it was a shock for the 18-year-old. “At around 2 am, my friend woke me up and said some houses were set on fire in Litan, and that we needed to leave quickly.”Story continues below this adThere was a frantic scramble to gather “necessities” – two changes of clothes, toiletries and a blanket. “We had no idea where we were going… I thought we would be running around in the forest,” Lamneiting says, the memory setting off a fresh round of nervous giggles.Armed Forces personnel arrived to pick up the 51, and took them to nearby Assam Rifle camps – the 20 girls to the 40 Assam Rifles Battalion HQ, and the 31 boys to 40 Assam Rifles Shokvao.The next week at these camps, spent in “hiding”, is a blur for most.Nengneiphal Khongsai, 18, who is appearing for Class 12 exams, says: “There were 20 of us in a room. We slept, ate, played a lot of carrom, some badminton, and chatted. But we often worried that we hadn’t packed our books in the rush.”Story continues below this ad At a classroom in JNV Kangpokpi, where the Kuki students from Ramva Ukhrul were taken last month. (Express Photo by Sukrita Baruah)Outside, the situation worsened. In the violence that surged at the time, officials estimate, 89 houses were set on fire in the area, 88 of them in Litan Sareikhong alone – 50 belonging to Kuki families, 37 of Tankhul families, and an empty quarter. The 89th house set on fire was in the adjacent Litan village, belonging to its Tangkhul headman.Given the situation, a call was taken by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti to shift the centre of the 18 students of JNV Ramva Ukhrul appearing for the Board exams to Kangpokpi.At around 7 pm on February 15, a Sunday, the convoy with the 18 students began.The night ofLamneiting says the girls got into two cars – and had to disembark right at the camp gates. “Some Naga women demanded to check our IDs, assuring us that nothing would happen to us. We left, but after about 20 minutes, police made us swap vehicles… That was quite scary.”Story continues below this adThey drove on to the Litan Police Station, and from there to the Kuki village of Mongkot Chepu, where the girls were given dinner.For the boys, the journey was rougher. When the four cars they were in reached the camp gate, “there were lots of people blocking the way”, says Seneikhup Baite, 19, a Class 12 student. “We could not move for nearly four-five hours.”Mangminhao says the crowd was carrying fire torches, and its numbers kept growing. The 17-year-old insists they were not scared, before adding: “Actually, it was a little scary when they tried to enter the gate.”Ultimately, a local Tangkhul students’ organisation, the Katho Katamnao Long, stepped in. “In Tangkhul areas, people have been checking the movement of Kukis… in case they are miscreants. But our fight is not with kids, so I convinced people not to obstruct them,” says the organisation’s president, Mashungmi Zingkhai.Story continues below this adBut, in the “negotiations”, it was decided that not just the board exam students but all the 51 Kuki children brought to the Assam Rifles camps should be moved out. So, the remaining 33 students at the camps were also transported out that night.Seiminlen Baite, who is in Class 12, says he realised how bad things were on the drive to the Litan Police Station. He looked out the window, and saw his family’s and a neighbour’s house charred. “At Mongkot Chepu, I borrowed a phone and called up my sister. She just started crying, and told me they had taken shelter in Sapermeina in Kangpokpi district,” says Seiminlen.From Mongkot Chepu to Kongpokpi, the road journey is about three hours. But the convoy had to skip the Meitei-majority areas, and finally reached JNV Kangpokpi only on February 16 morning, after travelling through the night on hill roads.JNV KangpokpiEven before the 51 new students came, the Kangpokpi school had seen the impact of the Manipur conflict. After it began in May 2023, essentially between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zos, the Meitei students left, moving to JNVs in Meitei-majority areas. Alongside, JNV students from Kuki-Zo families displaced from the Imphal valley were transferred to the Kangpokpi branch.Story continues below this adNow, most of the JNV Kangpokpi school’s students are Kuki-Zos, along with a few from the local Nepali and Naga communities.The 51 from Ramva Ukhrul have been accommodated in hostel dormitories. But the challenge is that the Kangpokpi school, with a smaller strength of 350 students, is only till Class 10. Hence, the students in Class 11 and especially the nine in Class 12 do not have access to grade-appropriate teachers and reference material. Secuiry deployment in Litan Sareikong, the epicentre of February 7 violence. (Express Photo by Sukrita Baruah)“A couple of days after they arrived, their principal and a senior Chemistry teacher came to talk to them and give some study material,” says JNV Kangpokpi Principal Prem Singh Yadav.Nengneiphal, the Class 12 student, just gave her Physics paper, and while she was “disappointed” with it, she says she is managing. “If there’s something I can’t understand, I skip it. There’s nothing more to be done.”Story continues below this adShe says the warden helps them talk to their parents. “They are motivating me.”But, it’s not easy, say the parents.Lamneiting’s parents are among around 20 people “keeping guard” at their village Yaolen Chepu. Lamneiting’s mother Hoikholam tells The Indian Express that she keeps thinking of Lamneiting and two siblings, who are also writing their board exams, for Classes 10 and 12. “After so many years in a good school, I just hope their future is not affected,” Hoikholam says, adding that she and her husband never got a chance to complete school.Ground zeroLitan Sareikhong is now a ghost town, with most of its Kuki residents living in Kuki villages on the other side of a bridge, and Tangkhul families who have lost their homes taking shelter in the village’s Veterinary Department building, as well as other shelters nearby.Locals estimate there are around 200 such displaced Tangkhul members.K S V Akui, who is among those living on the Veterinary Department premises, says fear runs both ways. “On February 8 night, a Kuki mob torched our house… We want to protect our land,” says the 50-year-old Tangkhul Naga.The president of the Tangkhul students’ organisation, Zingkhai, adds: “They (the Kukis) settled here because of the goodwill of our forefathers… We are not willing to negotiate anymore.”On this point, there are no differences. Mercy Khongsai, the vice-president of the Kuki Students’ Organisation Ukhrul, says: “It doesn’t look like things will calm down quickly.”A security official posted at Litan, who does not want to be named, says: “The reason the situation became so explosive is the existent land disputes in the area… There has been little headway in terms of dialogue to resolve these underlying issues.”The waitA few days after they arrived, the relatives of most of the 33 students from Ramva Ukhrul not appearing for the board exams were picked up by their relatives from JNV Kangpokpi. They will now come for their annual school exams starting March 13 – either to Ramva Ukhrul, if the situation is better, or otherwise to Kangpokpi.Gracie, 12, who is in Class 6, was picked up by her aunt and is now at a makeshift relief camp in Lamlai Chingphei village in Ukhrul, along with around 400 people evacuated from Litan Sareikhong and Yaolen Chepu.When asked how she has been spending her time, she shuffles her feet. “I play with the other children. I watch videos on YouTube.”At JNV Kangpokpi, the students say they miss their old school and their friends there, mostly Tangkhuls; for Class 12 students, the pain is worse as these were their last few weeks as school students.Lamneiting says the seven of them couldn’t attend their farewell on February 14. “The day before it, five of us got on a video call with our batchmates and teachers, and we all just cried together. We cried and cried past midnight.”