A video of two Kuki-Zo tribal women being paraded naked in Manipur surfaced online leading to massive outrage on social media.
Scores of young males can be seen strolling with the victims while other men pull them into the fields.
The two women belonging to the Kuki-Zo tribe in Manipur were paraded naked, molested and one of them was allegedly gang-raped by members belonging to the Meitei group, a report by Scroll.in said.
The incident which was strongly condemned by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, allegedly occurred in Kangpokpi district after the B Phainom village was burned down.
According to the ITLF, the mob murdered two men- one middle-aged and one teenager, before turning against the two women.
A press release by the ITLF said that the incident occurred on May 4 in Kangpokpi district, showing men constantly molesting the helpless women, who were crying and pleading with their captors.
“The horrifying ordeal suffered by these innocent women is amplified by the perpetrators’ decision to share the video, which shows the identity of the victims, on social media,” an ITLF press release said.
The disturbing video garnered thousands of views and drew widespread condemnation.
The video was doing the rounds on the eve of a planned protest march announced by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on Thursday to highlight their plight.
FIR filed
According to the Scroll.in report, a police complaint filed by the relatives of the women states that one of the women was subsequently gang-raped. Based on the complaint, the police said a zero FIR has been registered in the Saikul police station of Kangpokpi district on May 18.
While FIRs are made in the police station whose jurisdiction the alleged crime occurred, a zero FIR allows any police station to receive and register a complaint before forwarding it to the appropriate station.
The report quoted an official at the Saikul police station who said that charges of rape and murder, among others, have been pressed against “unknown miscreants” numbering “800-1,000”.
“Some unknown miscreants…carrying sophisticated weapons like AK Rifles, SLR. INSAS and .303 Rifles, forcefully entered our village, Island Sub-Division Kangpokpi District, Manipur,” the complaint states.
The mob then went on to burn and vandalise the houses in the village, said the complaint.
The particular incident, according to the complaint, involves five residents of the village who were fleeing “towards the forest” to save themselves.
The group comprised two men and three women. Three of them belonged to the same family: a 56-year-old man, his 19-year-old son, and 21-year-old daughter. Two other women, one 42 years old and the other aged 52, were also part of the group, the report said.
On the way to the forest, they were “rescued” by a team from the Nongpok Sekmai police station, the complaint adds. However, they were “blocked on the way by a mob and snatched from the custody of the police team by the violent mob near Toubu”, two km from Nongpok Sekmai police station, the complaint alleges.
The mob immediately killed the 56-year-old, the complaint states, following which “all the three women were physically forced to remove their clothes and were stripped naked in front of the mob”.
The 21-year-old woman was “brutally gang raped in broad daylight”, the complaint alleges even as the other two women “managed to escape from the spot with the help of some people of the area who were known to them”.
The 21-year-old’s “younger brother tried to defend his sister’s modesty and life but he was murdered by members of the mob on the spot,” it adds.
ITLF demands justice
While condemning the “sickening act”, the spokesperson of the ITLF in a statement demanded that the central and state governments, National Commission for Women, and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes take cognisance of the offence and bring the culprits before the law.
The Kuki-Zo tribals are planning to raise this issue as well during a proposed protest march in Churchandpur on Thursday.
Manipur state has been witnessing ethnic clashes since May 3 between the majority of the Meiteis, concentrated in Imphal valley, and the Kukis, occupying the hills. Over 160 people have been killed in the violence so far.
(With inputs from PTI)
