A victim has described her harrowing ordeal after she and another Christian woman were reportedly paraded naked and sexually assaulted by mobs of apparently Hindu men in Manipur, northeast India, where communal violence has flared in recent months.
Horrific video showing two naked women being dragged down a road being groped by the men before they were allegedly raped in a field has sparked anger across the country.
The victims are said to be two women from the Christian Kuki tribe, in their 20s and 60s, and are now safe in a refugee camp after the vicious attacks that took place in early May.
One woman told the Associated Press, “They made us take off our clothes and said we will be killed if we don’t do as we are told. Then they made us walk naked. They abused us. They touched us all over…on our breasts, our genitals.”
The younger woman’s father and brother were clubbed to death as they tried to protect her from the violent mob. The times Officials in the northeastern state report this.
It comes as women across the state torch the home of a prime suspect in the attack amid angry protests gripping the nation.
Women carrying torches shout slogans as they take part in a demonstration demanding peace in India’s northeastern state of Manipur
Poignant video shows the two naked women being dragged along a road in northeast India’s Manipur state, as young men grope their genitals as the victims try to tear themselves away from their clawing hands. Pictured: A video recording of the images showing the crowd of men
The remote state of Manipur has been in the grip of a near-civil war since May, which has left 130 dead and seen crowds rampage through villages killing people and burning homes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke two months’ silence after the video went viral to condemn the brutal attack, saying it “has brought shame to India” and that the “the guilty will not be spared’.
“What happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi said in his first remarks about ethnic clashes in the remote state ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party.
My heart is filled with pain and anger. The incident from Manipur that has emerged is an embarrassment to any civilized nation,” he said, urging key ministers to strengthen law enforcement.
Hours after Modi promised tough action, the prime suspect, a resident of Manipur state, was arrested on Thursday.
Three others were also arrested and a police official said they were on the trail of at least 30 others involved in the crime.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke two months of silence after the video went viral to condemn the brutal attack
One of the alleged perpetrators has been named by NDTV as Huirem Heradas Singh, 32, who was allegedly seen dragging one of the women.
If convicted, the men could face the death penalty, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said.
The Chief Minister added: “After seeing the video, we have taken a decision to condemn the heinous crime and we call it a crime against humanity…”
This morning, women across the state attacked the home of a suspect who allegedly dragged the two tribal women into the streets in May and later incited a mob to rape them and parade them naked, police said Friday.
The assault took place more than two months ago, but gained national attention after a short video went viral on social media earlier this week.
“Local women pelted stones and burned some parts of the house of the main defendant in a village,” said Hemant Pandey, a senior police official in the capital Imphal.
People hold signs during a protest against sexual violence against women and for peace in the ongoing ethnic violence in India’s northeastern state of Manipur
Women’s rights activists hold candlelight vigil to protest continued violence against women and girls in Manipur state
“We ask women to protest peacefully because there is great unrest. We understand their anger,” he said.
Protests were planned in several parts of India by women’s rights groups demanding justice and swift investigation into the latest incident to raise questions about the safety of women in the country.
“We want to know why the police did not act quickly when they knew that women were being raped and paraded naked in Manipur,” said Radhika Burman, a student in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The Indian Youth Congress staged a protest against the incident in Manipur, with activists holding a candle vigil calling for peace in the state.
The group’s state chairman Manoj Lubana criticized the BJP and Modi said the prime minister “has time to visit abroad, but he has not yet visited the strife-affected state.”
The assault was reported by the victims in May after ethnic clashes began in Manipur.
The shell of a burnt-out house after ethnic clashes and riots in Sugnu, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, on Wednesday
The fighting was provoked by a court order that the government should consider extending the Kuki tribe’s special benefits to the majority of the Meitei population as well.
At least 140 people have been killed and more than 60,000 have fled their homes since the violence broke out.
Houses have been torched as mobs rampaged through villages, reportedly destroying some 4,400 homes and burning down 357 churches.
The unrest is believed to have stemmed from a demand from the mainly Hindu Meitei people for a special status that would allow them to buy land in the hills, which are largely populated by Christian Kuki and other tribal groups.