After widespread outrage over the parade, molestation, and alleged gang rape of two Kuki women in Manipur on May 3, an FIR has been filed in another similar case pertaining to the same day.
Two women 21 and 24 years old, from the state’s Kangpokpi district, were allegedly gang raped and murdered on May 3 the same day two tribal women were sexually assaulted by a mob in the state.
The women were attacked by a mob as they were working at a car wash in the Konung Mamang neighbourhood of the Imphal East district, around 40 kilometres from the scene of the previous incident.
A huge group of men, along with several women, allegedly assaulted the two women at the car wash.
The Times of India quoted a male coworker who witnessed the incident as saying that the women in the mob encouraged the men to drag the victims into a room and sexually assault them.
The victims were brought inside the room, their mouths covered with cloth pieces to stop them from yelling. And the lights were turned off.
After roughly an hour and a half of this horrifying ordeal, the victims were carried outdoors and dumped close to a sawmill in the area in a condition where their bodies lay bloodied, their hair was chopped off, and their clothes were torn apart.
According to a report by NDTV, the FIR stated that her daughter and the other lady were “brutally murdered after being raped and gruesomely tortured,” which was later moved to Porompat police station in Imphal East district.
It was at the same police station that the other FIR was filed, over the alleged kidnapping, rape, and murder of the two ladies, whose horrifying ordeal was captured on camera and incited outrage around the country.
Because of the shame attached to sexual assault, the identity of the victims has first kept a secret. The mother of one of the victims did, however, get the strength to submit a Zero FIR at Saikul police station on May 16 which was then sent to the relevant police station, the Indian Express reported.
The police complaint stated that “their dead bodies are not yet recovered, and their whereabouts are also not known to date.” They have estimated the number of people in the mob to be between 100 and 200.
No arrests have been made in this matter thus far. The Manipur police are presently looking into hundreds of reports of different crimes, such as stealing weapons, setting fire to things, murdering people, and assaulting women.
They are the most recent account of horror to come from the state, where since the outbreak of unrest on May 3 at least 125 people have died and more than 40,000 have been displaced.
The conflict in the state bordering Myanmar started when the Kuki tribal group and the ethnic majority Meitei battled over the distribution of economic advantages and quotas allocated to the tribes.
After the government sent thousands of paramilitary and army personnel to the 32 lakh-person state, the unrest seemed to abate.
However, random deaths and violence returned shortly after, and the state has remained volatile ever since.
