The May 4 sexual assault of two Kuki women at the start of the Manipur troubles, which has only recently infuriated the nation after a video of the incident went viral, was not an isolated incident, the president of the Kuki Students Organisation has told Highland Post.
“There are many such cases but unfortunately there is no evidence like the one that got exposed,” Jangkohao Hangshing said. “The video that went viral failed to get buried away like the rest but somehow came out in the open but there are many such cases.”
Hangshing said that the perpetrators deserve capital punishment for the sexual assault and the murder of two men in the group of Kukis who had fled their village after it was attacked.
“I don’t even know how to comment about such an inhumane act…I’m speechless. These women are their (the perpetrators’) neighbours who have been living together for decades and sadly nothing was done on the FIR lodged in May but only now that the videos were exposed,” he lamented.
The violence has sundered almost all links between the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kukis and Hangshing said that only a separate administration would possibly bring about a solution. He added that Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has lost the right to rule and should step down as the state has collapsed.
“This was a preplanned plan to suppress the weaker section with an intention to wipe out the Kuki community,” he claimed, adding that this included homes, churches, vehicles and the people as well. “In order to wipe out the community, you need to wipe out the property. They burned the churches first so that the people could no longer take shelter there when their houses were burned and they started by destroying the biggest asset of the community.”
Hangshing also blamed the central government for the suppression of minorities, saying that this “has become a culture. We were not expecting this to happen in Manipur but it actually happened. Had this not happened in Manipur, it could have happened somewhere else but we are the unlucky ones.”
“If they the central government has allowed the situation to escalate to this extent and never uttered a word for a concrete step then it means they have allowed them to do so. What more can we say?”
