India airlifts food to blockaded Manipur

Naga tribesmen living in Manipur began the blockade on June 19, leading to a severe shortage of food and fuel in the state's capital Imphal.

The Nagas are demanding that all Naga-dominated areas in the northeast be united in a "Greater Nagaland." A third of the three million-strong tribe live in Manipur and two other northeastern states, and the rest in neighbouring Nagaland.

Manipuris strongly oppose the division of their state.

On Saturday, four Indian Air Force (IAF) cargo planes brought about 40 tonnes of medicines, edible oil, sugar, pulses and other supplies to Imphal after the state sought federal help, a senior official said.

"The air force carried out a civic action at the request of the civil authorities and under instructions from New Delhi," an IAF official told Reuters.

Eyewitnesses said hundreds of soldiers in full combat gear surrounded the airport as flights landed and handed over the consignments to civil officials.

Hundreds of goods-laden trucks are stranded on Manipur's highways and a fuel shortage has caused long queues in several parts of the state.

Naga tribesmen have intensified their blockade despite the fact that leaders of a rebel group -- the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) -- and Indian officials extended a seven-year-long ceasefire by another six months last weekend.