Imphal, Oct. 29: Transport services were affected as owners of trucks, buses and petrol tankers extended their solidarity to the All-Manipur Inter-state Bus Association that called a Manipur bandh today to protest the torching of a Guwahati-bound bus from Imphal in Karbi Anglong district of Assam.

Two passengers also died in the arson last Thursday.

Though the bandh had little impact here, suspension of transport services affected the vegetable market in the city with supplies dropping significantly and affecting shoppers for Ningol Chakouba.

The transporters held a sit-in at a bus station here to demand protection of state vehicles while passing through other states.

Yesterday, a delegation of the association led by its president Budha Luwang met chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh and demanded adequate security for transporters.

“We are facing threats from militants even in Manipur. So we want central forces — either the army or the Assam Rifles — to patrol National Highway 39 up to Guwahati,” Luwang said.

The secretary of the All Manipur Road Transport Drivers and Motor Workers Union, Hamom Kullamani, said sending commercial vehicles under a convoy system with security guards was not feasible.

“If the security forces are on patrol along the highway round-the-clock, the vehicles could be safe,” he said.

Reacting to the Zeliangrong Youth Front’s demand that the bus association be the mediator in imposing a fine on the Kuki Liberation Army/Kuki Liberation Organisation in accordance with tribal customary law, Luwang said his association could not negotiate with an armed outfit.

He appealed to civil society groups to help resolve the customary law issue. The two victims belonged to the Zeliangrong community.

Ibobi Singh today reviewed the situation along National Highway 39 (Imphal-Dimapur) and instructed security agencies to step vigil along the Imphal-Jiribam and the Imphal-Dimapur highways.