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Deeply disturbed by the horrific video from Manipur, the Supreme Court on Thursday said the incident was “completely unacceptable in a constitutional democracy” and called on the Union and Manipur governments to take action, otherwise “we will pass orders”.
Amid an uproar on the opening day of the monsoon session of Parliament, the prime minister said: “What happened to the daughters of Manipur will never be forgiven. The law with all its might will take one step after another. I assure my compatriots that not a single culprit will be spared.”
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi called directly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for a discussion of Manipur in Parliament, setting the tone for a turbulent monsoon session even as the joint opposition bloc INDIA is considering an offensive outside the House with a cross-party delegation to the
NEW DELHI: Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “1,800 hours of incomprehensible and unforgivable silence,” Congress on Thursday criticized the prime minister’s early comments on Manipur as an attempt to ramble and dodge the issue of ethnic violence. He said that Modi’s decision to prolong the gang incident
GUWAHATI: The attack on the two women from B Phainom village, who paraded naked in Manipur on May 4, was spontaneous, authorities said, adding that “no fake video” of villages burned and women raped triggered it. “The attackers were assaulting some nine villages in the area since the night of May 3, the day
At 10:44am, minutes after the Supreme Court said “if the government doesn’t act, we will”, CM N Biren Singh took to Twitter to report that the “suo motu” action after the video surfaced had led to the first arrest in the case. The detainee, identified as 32 years old Huirem Herodas Singh from Pechi Awang Lekai in Thoubal district, is seen prominently in the video that surfaced on Wednesday.
It was not clear what the CM meant by “suo motu knowledge of the incident” as FIR zero showed up at the Saikul Police Station in Kangpokpi District at 8:30 am on May 18.
While announcing the second arrest to a press Thursday night, he tried to explain the more than two-month delay in police action as being caused by “1,000 cases that were filed regarding different incidents.”
“It takes time to identify each case. That is why the moment we received this video, the investigation and police action started immediately,” he said. “A thorough investigation is underway and we will ensure that strict action is taken against all perpetrators, including the possibility of capital punishment.”
The FIR of May 18, re-registered on June 21 at Nongpok Sekmai Police Station for jurisdictional reasons, mentions that the armed mob also killed the 56-year-old father and 19-year-old brother of the young woman whom they stripped, paraded and then allegedly gang-raped.
02:01
Women Paraded Naked: AAP Attacks PM Modi, Says ‘He Can Go Abroad, But He Has No Time To Visit Manipur’
The older of the two women paraded naked — the IRF mentions that a third woman was forced to strip, but she is not seen in the video — and her retired army subedar husband, a Kargil veteran, said TOI from a relief camp in Churachandpur who lost everything they had in the chaos: home, other material possessions and their dignity.
“Both women were forced to strip naked at gunpoint in front of thousands of men in the open-air crowd. They threatened to kill us if we didn’t. They made us dance, shoved and shoved, and they paraded us naked,” said the 42-year-old mother.
Her husband, 65, said his wife fell into a depression. “With our children to care for her, she is struggling to get back on track… I have seen war, I have fought on the front lines in Kargil. And now I find my own place more dangerous than the battlefield.
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Delhi Indian Youth Congress activists protest Manipur parade incident
Over two days, on May 3 and 4, the 1,000-member mob raided nine villages in the area, burning houses and a church and killing domestic animals, the retired soldier said.
“They came to our town (b ghost) on May 4, and when they started burning houses, all the villagers ran here and there to save their lives. My wife got separated from me and she and four other villagers hid behind a tree in the forest. Some of the attackers who were chasing our goats, pigs and chickens also entered the forest and found my wife along with the others hiding there,” she recounted.
He said that the captured group included a woman with her baby and three members of a family (father, son and daughter). As they were being led out into the open, they saw a police vehicle waiting and got in, but the crowd overpowered the two policemen and dragged my wife and the other four out.”
The husband and other villagers the raiders were able to catch were also taken to the village’s dirt road. “I could see them taking my wife and the other four from a distance. The three women were forced to undress. The woman who was carrying a baby in her arms was later freed by some people from the mob who seemed to know her. The mob was trying to harass the younger woman, and when her father and her brother tried to protect her, they were killed,” the former soldier said.
The FIR filed on the basis of her complaint states that the younger woman, aged 21, was then “brutally gang-raped in broad daylight”. Police sources said the gang rape had not yet been established because the girl was missing.
“The ordeal continued for two or three hours, and when the crowd dispersed, all the villagers fled the scene. We crossed the hills, and in the evening my wife joined me in a Naga village. The youngest was taken by her boyfriend. The next morning, we started walking again with some villagers in our group, who also had some pregnant women. The rest went in different directions,” she said.
The soldier, his wife and others in the group continued walking through the hills to reach Saikul on May 18. “We didn’t take the route through the valley even though it would have taken us to Saikul in a couple of hours because it was too risky. There we contacted the Saikul police who escorted us to the police station so we could present our FIR,” he said.
The retired subedar and his wife don’t know what’s next. “They burned the house I built with my life savings and my truck. From now on, this relief camp is the only place we can call home.”
Governor Anusiya Uikey questioned the police silence until the video went viral on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe this type of incident has happened in my state. I want to know why no action was taken on the women’s complaint. Today I called the DGP of my state. Never in the future should any person have the courage to commit these kinds of crimes against women,” he told ANI in a video interview.
The Manipur Coordinating Committee for Integrity (COCOMI) called the crime “barbaric” and “inhumane.”
“COCOMI always tried to avoid any incident that could affect the modesty and dignity of the victims and their families and relatives and friends,” he said.
The FIR claims that the mob had people suspected of being members of six organisations, all of which have been identified.
Look Disturbing Viral Video: Two Manipur Women Parade Naked