Another Woman Was Shot Today After Alleged Rape and Killing of a Woman in Manipur

Video shot of a suspected Meitei rebel in Manipur’s Jiribam

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Two women were killed in fresh violence in Manipur in the last two days. In the first incident, a woman from the Hmar tribe was allegedly shot, raped and set on fire by suspected Meitei rebels in Jiribam district on Thursday night, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband with the police.

In the second incident, a woman from the Meitei community was shot dead by suspected Kuki rebels while working in the paddy field in Bishnupur district on Saturday, police sources said.

In Jiribam, a 31-year-old woman and her three children were at home at the time of the attack. A group of suspected Meitei rebels set fire to several more houses.

Nongovernmental organization Hmar Inpui claimed in a statement that suspected Meitei rebels shot the mother of three in the leg, “making it impossible for her to escape.”

“Ignoring her humanity and her family’s unimaginable pain, the attackers raped, tortured, and burned her alive, even depriving her of the dignity of a dignified burial,” Hmar Inpui said. he said.

In a letter to the district magistrate, Jiribam Superintendent of Police Kh Robinsun Singh sought permission to conduct a video-recorded autopsy at Silchar Medical College and Hospital in neighboring Assam.

The district police chief said there was no forensic facility in Jiribam and transportation to the state capital Imphal would be “inappropriate” due to ethnic tensions.

Police sources said that in the Bishnupur incident reported today, the woman was working in the paddy field along with other farmers when suspected Kuki rebels opened fire from nearby hills and she died on the spot.

Sapam Ongbi Sonia Devi, a farmer from Meitei community, was shot dead by suspected Kuki rebels while working in her paddy field.

Most Paddy fields in the low valley regions of ManipurIncluding Bishnupur’s Saiton, where the attack took place today, is close to the foothills where suspected Kuki rebels are allegedly operating under the guise of ‘village defense volunteers’.

Massive protests have broken out in Kuki-majority Kangpokpi and Churachandpur districts seeking justice for the family of the woman who was allegedly raped and murdered in Jiribam. Non-governmental organizations of the Meitei community, which is dominant in the valley, also took action today to protest the killing of the farmer.

The Kuki tribes and the Meiteis have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues, including land rights and political representation.