The longest period Manipur State was kept under 'Disturbed Area Status' was

Concept

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) can be enforced only after a region is formally notified as a ‘disturbed area’. The relevant measure here is the single longest unbroken stretch during which the whole of Manipur stayed under that notification, before any part of it was first taken out.

Applying it to Manipur

1. Manipur was first declared a ‘disturbed area’ in 1980, to counter the insurgent groups then active in the state.

2. The notification stayed in force over the entire state, unbroken, for the next two-and-a-half decades.

3. In 2004, following the Thangjam Manorama episode and the prolonged anti-AFSPA protests, the Imphal Municipal Council area was, for the first time, removed from the disturbed-area notification — ending the state-wide continuous spell.

So the longest continuous Disturbed-Area spell for the whole state runs from 1980 to 2004, a span of about 24 years.

Cross-check against the other spans

• A start in 1968 or 1976 predates Manipur’s actual 1980 notification, so neither can mark the beginning of this spell.

• A window beginning in 1986 starts six years after the real notification and so understates the continuous period.

• Carrying the end-point to 2000 or to 2020 ignores 2004, the year the unbroken state-wide status was first interrupted.

The span that opens at the genuine 1980 notification and closes at the 2004 interruption is 1980 to 2004.