Morning Digest | 18-year-old gang-raped in Manipur after women vigilantes hand her over to armed men; as tensions rise, Meiteis forced to leave Mizoram

Morning Digest, July 23, 2023 | 18-year-old gang-raped in Manipur after women vigilantes hand her over to armed men; as tensions rise, Meiteis forced to leave Mizoram

18-year-old gang-raped in Manipur after women vigilantes hand her over to armed men

This is one of a number of cases of sexual violence that have been reported from the State since ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki and the majority Meitei communities erupted on May 3. The traumatised woman came forward to complain after a video went viral this week, showing three women who were stripped and paraded, one of them raped, in Thoubal on May 4.

Kuki women students of Manipur University recount horror of targeted attack by mob

For a good six hours on the intervening night of May 3 and 4, four women Ph.D. research scholars of the Manipur University campus in Imphal cowered in a toilet of their hostel building as an armed mob went about systematically locating students, staff and faculty from the Kuki-Zomi community.

As tensions rise, Meiteis forced to leave Mizoram

The Peace Accord MNF Returnees’ Association (PAMRA), an organisation of former extremists, had issued a statement on Friday saying Mizoram was no longer safe for the Meiteis in view of the mounting tension following the “barbaric and heinous acts committed by miscreants in Manipur”. Mizos and Kukis are ethnically related, as are the Chins of Myanmar and the Chin-Kukis of Bangladesh.

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