Manipur women who were paraded naked were forcibly taken from police custody: Report
1 min read 20 Jul 2023, 05:32 PM ISTThe women, who are from the Kangpokpi district, were fleeing their village during ethnic clashes when they were stopped and seized by a mob. They were forced to remove their clothes and one of them was repeatedly gang-raped. The women are currently in relief camps.
PremiumThe video of the women who were paraded naked and allegedly gang-raped in the violence-hit Manipur has sparked outrage among the political circles. The video showed two women, stripped naked, held and groped by a mob of men, and being dragged to a field. A senior police official has confirmed that the incident happened on May 4 in the Thoubal district of Manipur. The video prompted the arrest of the key accused.
The incident reportedly happened a day after the ethnic clashes between two tribal communities broke out in May but the video went viral two months later, on Wednesday, triggering anger across the country and a word from the prime minister. Until Thursday, PM Narendra Modi, who faces re-election early next year, hadn’t said anything about the violence in Manipur where at least 150 have died in the ethnic clashes.
In their complaint, the women, who are from the Kuki-Zomi-dominated Kangpokpi district, said that they were fleeing the village when they heard that some 800-1,000 persons, carrying weapons, had entered their village and were looting and burning down the houses.
The complainants said they were trying to flee when they were stopped and rescued by the police. They were being taken to a police station when a mob stopped the police van and forcibly seized the women, according to an Indian Express report. Narrating the sequence of events, the women said the youngest woman’s father and brother were killed on the spot, the report mentioned.
The women were “physically forced to remove their clothes and were stripped naked in front of the mob," they said. They also informed there was another woman in her 50s who was stripped and paraded. They also alleged that the younger woman, in her 20s, was repeatedly gang-raped. They were threatened that they will be killed if they don’t remove their clothes.
The women are currently in the relief camps.
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