“How dare you wear clothes again”- these words still echo in the heart of the twenty one year old woman who was paraded naked on May 4 in Kangpokpi district. With a prolonged heart condition, she has always been weak at resistance, claimed her mother. On that fateful day, she had seen her father and brother, both being killed by the mob in front of her eyes. This while both the men tried protecting her after the mob had attacked their village, a day after the first incident of the violence on May 3, that eventually left the whole state divided.
She has barely told anything to her mother, yet to come to terms with the way she was first violated and then how her family members were butchered. She hasn’t spoken to media, doesn’t wish to. The video of that incident went viral on July 19, stoking nationwide outrage and protest. “I haven’t seen the video. My daughter told me that I will not be able to withstand it. She, in limited words had shared that her clothes were taken off. She also told me that the way my husband and son were killed, was brutal” said the mother of the survivor to NTT.
The woman has now issued a statement narrating the horror that she had encountered. “Those who were hiding were rounded up by armed men. There were three policemen sitting in the gypsy who had witnessed everything. However they did nothing to stop the mob” read the statement written on behalf of the tribal woman who is now kept in a safe house in Churachandpur district. In that statement written in a third person format, it is alleged that the woman and her brother got into the police gypsy while trying to protect themselves after their father was killed by the mob.
“Despite their pleas the policemen refused to drive them away to safety. Shockingly, the driver drove the gypsy straight back into the centre of the mob, after which the policemen left the gypsy. The brother was then pulled out of the gypsy and clobbered to death right infront of them. His body was laid on top of the corpse of her father” the statement alleged.
The government hasn’t confirmed if the role of the police was questionable and if the said police personnel are under the scanner after the investigation began, only after the videos came to fore, more than 2 months after the incident had actually happened. The investigation has now been handed over to CBI.
A delegation of opposition alliance INDIA visited the violence hit state, several woman MPs met with the survivor. “ The woman is still in shock. It was very difficult for us to listen to her share the ordeal. Imagine, the police had left her to the mob instead of protecting her. The institution that is expected to save you, took her to the monsters who sexually assaulted her. She is asking if the state government is sincere about the investigation then have they suspended those officers as yet, taken any action against them. What is the point of CBI probe then?” said TMC Sushmita Dev, who was part of the opposition delegation, after meeting with the survivor.
The statement issued on behalf of the woman has also quoted her as saying as what the mob had shouted before parading her naked- “If you don’t take off your clothes, we will burn you alive.” She was sexually assaulted and allegedly gang-raped by the men. Later according to the statement, some men gave her clothes to wear. But her ordeal was far from over, mob had objected to she being given clothes. “How dare you wear your clothes again, take them off” the statement has quoted her.
None came to their rescue and none had given them any shelter after they were left abandoned, in pain by the mob. The woman had later gone back to the place where her father and brother’s bodies were left lying.
The mother of the survivor broke down several time while speaking with NTT. She wants her daughter to fight for justice. “I am worried about her. I am not sure if anyone can do any help to her. I however want her to fight like a fighter. I demand stringent punishment for the culprits. What they did to her is inhuman. I appeal to the country, to the mothers and daughters, kindly look into what’s going on here, so that another mother or another daughter doesn’t suffer the way we are suffering” she said.
Widespread protest had been on across Churachandpur district over the incidents of rape and violations. Women meet every morning wearing black clothes in order to condemn the acts of terror committed against women during the ongoing conflict. They carry posters reading “Is Kuki-Zo people power hidden in the body of a woman” and “Where is the law, where is the Justice?”
There isn’t any government data as yet confirming how many women have been sexually assaulted, abused and raped or gang-raped during this ongoing conflict in Manipur.
