women raped and forced to parade naked

A video from early May that went viral today clearly illustrates the brutality of the ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities. Police have filed charges of kidnapping, gang rape and murder because relatives of one of the two women in the images were killed. Prime Minister Modi broke his silence on the atrocities for the first time. Archbishop of Imphal: “There is a total collapse of humanity. We are forced to send aid by air.”

Imphal () – A video from the northeastern state of Manipur has gone viral in India in which two women are forced to parade naked, probably after being raped. Since the beginning of May the region has been shaken by violent clashes – about which we have been reporting for weeks in – Between the Kuki (whose members are mostly Christian) and Meitei (predominantly Hindu) communities, in a context in which the suspension of the Internet has made it difficult to disseminate information.

The images, which show women being groped and harassed by a group of men, are from May 4 and are now sparking outrage across the country. Police opened an investigation into kidnapping, gang rape and subsequent murder, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “no culprit will go unscathed”, breaking for the first time a silence of more than two months on what is happening in Manipur. “I assure the nation that the law will run its course in full force. What happened to the daughters of Manipur could never be forgiven,” he added.

Bishop Dominic Lumon, Archbishop of Imphal, the capital of Manipur, considers that “a total collapse of humanity” is taking place. “I was shocked and saddened when I learned about this horrible matter that has gone viral, brutal violence on top of other violations perpetrated against our women in the last three months,” he told .

More than 130 people have been killed since the fighting began and more than 60,000 have been displaced. According to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, the attack occurred in the village of Nongpok Sekmai, in Toubal district, against women belonging to the Kuki tribe. “The gang rape of the women took place after the village was burned down and two men, one middle-aged and one teenager, were beaten to death by the mob,” the organization reported.

According to police sources, the father and 19-year-old brother of the raped woman were killed when they tried to flee into the woods. The brother was probably trying to protect his sister from attack. The first report says that the police intervention was prevented by a crowd of between 900 and 1,000 people, some of whom were in possession of sophisticated weapons.

“It is very tragic that society is divided along sectarian lines,” Archbishop Lumon continued. “Recently an ethnic Naga woman was also brutally murdered, when we should hold our women in the highest regard.”

The suffering is even greater in the displacement camps, the prelate explained: “Women have been uprooted from their homes and abandoned, they have left their communities, they have fled for their lives, and that is already traumatic in itself. In addition, in some places food products and medicines are scarce, and we cannot bring help because we would have to go through the territories of communities that are in conflict with each other. So we are forced to ask the Armed Forces to drop relief supplies from planes.”

The central government of Delhi has asked Twitter and other social media platforms to remove the video because an investigation is underway. But despite the fact that the complaint was first registered in the Kangpokpi district on May 18 and the charge was transferred to Toubal’s officers on June 21, no arrests have yet been made. “The police are doing everything possible to find the culprits as soon as possible,” said the archbishop.