When her brother tried to stop them, he was also killed, said their mother. It was there that her 21-year-old daughter was surrounded by the mob and sexually assaulted. She said the police initially escorted her along with her daughter and 19-year-old son, but on seeing the mob, dropped them back to where the body of her husband lay on the ground. We pleaded with the police to rescue us,” said the mother of the 21-year-old survivor. Speaking to Al Jazeera, the family of the sexual assault survivors said police officers were with a Meitei mob when it attacked their B Phainom village in Kangpokpi district, about 40km (25 miles) from the state capital, Imphal. They said the authorities acted only after the video went viral on Wednesday. But it took them more than a month to transfer the case to the police station under whose jurisdiction the crime happened.Įven after that, no action was taken, said the residents. The families of the two survivors told Al Jazeera they filed a complaint over the May 4 incident with the police on May 18. The name ‘Churachandpur’ referring to a Meitei king blacked out and replaced by ‘Lamka’, the name used by the Kuki-Zo community to refer to the district Survivor’s family says police were with mobīut Kuki-Zo families in Manipur say these words and actions are too late and accused the authorities – both in the state and at the centre – of indifference towards their plight. “A thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment,” the state’s chief minister N Biren Singh, who is a Meitei, tweeted after the arrest. On Thursday, police arrested a 32-year-old Meitei man, identified as Khuirem Herodas, as one of the suspects behind the assault on the two women. “Thanks to the video, we are trying to identify the miscreants,” he said. Sachidananda Soibam, the superintendent of police in Manipur’s Thoubal district where the FIR over the May 4 incident was registered, told Al Jazeera they received the viral video only on Wednesday. #BREAKING Supreme Court directs Union and State government to take steps against the videos of women being stripped and paraded in #Manipur.ĬJI DY Chandrachud remarks 'We will give a little time for government to take action otherwise we will step in.' #SupremeCourtOfIndia /cjEZ5xBRgm “In a constitutional democracy, it is unacceptable,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said. Houses burnt at Phaimol, a Kuki-Zo village in Kangpokpi district Īlso on Thursday, India’s Supreme Court said it was deeply disturbed by the viral video and asked the state and federal governments to inform the top court of the steps taken to catch the perpetrators. “Any civil society should be ashamed by it,” he said ahead of a parliament session where the opposition members demanded a statement from Modi on Manipur. The video emerged after more than two months due to an internet ban in Manipur since May 3 – a move that has been widely criticised by rights activists in India.īreaking his two-month silence on the Manipur violence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the incident had filled his heart with grief and anger. The Meiteis, who constitute more than half of Manipur’s 3.5 million population, mainly live in capital Imphal and the prosperous valley around it, while the Kuki-Zo and Naga tribes live in the surrounding hill districts.Īt least 130 people – most of them Kuki-Zo – have been killed and more than 50,000 displaced since clashes between the two communities broke out over a proposal to extend reservation in government jobs and education to the Meiteis. The incident happened on May 4, a day after deadly ethnic riots broke out between the mainly Hindu Meitei and predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribes in the remote state in India’s northeast, governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The police complaint says the other woman was 42. The 26-second video shows the group of men – some appearing to be as young as 15 – groping and sexually attacking the women belonging to the ethnic Kuki-Zo tribe, and escorting them towards an empty field.Īt least one of the women, aged 21, was gang raped, according to the first information report (FIR) filed by the survivors. Kangpokpi, Manipur – A viral video from the Indian state of Manipur, showing dozens of men parading and assaulting two women who have been stripped naked, has triggered outrage in the country.

Fun things to do for your birthday