A grisly video shared on the internet showing two women being paraded naked by a mob and being sexually assaulted in India’s northeastern Manipur state has triggered outrage and anger across the country, with Indians demanding swift action against the perpetrators.
The two women, one in her 20s and the other in her 40s, are from the Christian Kuki tribe, who live in the hills, and the incident had taken place on May 4 in Thoubal district of the restive state, Indian media reported on Wednesday.
In the shocking video, a mob of men can be seen dragging the two women toward a field and forcibly groping them.
Scroll news website citing a police complaint said the 21-year-old woman was “brutally gang raped” by the mob.
“When we resisted, they told me: ‘If you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you’,” the woman in her forties told Scroll.
The news outlet cited a police official saying charges of rape and murder, among others, have been pressed against “unknown miscreants” numbering “800-1,000”.
The victims told The Wire news website that police in Manipur had been present at the scene of the crime but did not help them.
Manipur police said on Wednesday it is “making all-out effort to arrest the culprits at the earliest.”
Calls for action
“The horrific video of sexual assault of 2 women emanating from Manipur is condemnable and downright inhuman,” Indian cabinet minister Smriti Z Irani said.
She said the state officials have assured her that “no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.”
Indian opposition Congress targeted PM Narendra Modi’s right-wing ruling Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] after the video surfaced online.
“Modi govt and the BJP has changed democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy by destroying the delicate social fabric of the state,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, head of Congress, adding “India will never forgive the silence” of PM Modi.
Violence in Manipur
Manipur has seen increased violence after a court in February suggested that the special privileges granted to Christian Kuki people — who live in the hills, and receive economic benefits and quotas for government jobs and education and make up 16 percent of the state’s population, be extended to the Hindu Meiteis, who are a majority in the state and control the more prosperous lowlands.
Nearly 120 people have been killed in clashes between the two tribes and 50,000 have been displaced during the past two months.
According to the EU parliament, over 1,700 houses and 250 churches have been destroyed.
Several rounds of peace talks between the groups have failed and sporadic incidents of violence and arson continue to deepen the crisis in the state governed by PM Modi’s BJP party.
Human rights groups say Modi’s government and party have failed to do more to end ethnic tensions.
Amid the diplomatic courting of Modi by the US and France recently, a resolution from the European Parliament last week served as a reminder that he and his Hindu nationalist agenda have garnered critics at home and abroad.
EU parliamentarians approved a motion urging India to end violence in northeastern Manipur state and protect minorities there.
Reacting to the resolution, India’s Foreign Ministry said such “interference” in India’s internal affairs is “unacceptable” and “reflects a colonial mindset.”
