Women in India’s northeastern state of Manipur have attacked the house of the main suspect in a sexual assault case that has enraged the nation, police said.
The person allegedly dragged two tribal women onto the streets in May and later incited
content warning sexual assault
a mob to rape and parade them naked
police said on Friday, as ethnic clashes between the mostly Hindu Meitei and mainly Christian Kuki-Zo communities engulfed the remote state.
The sexual assault took place over two months ago but it captured national attention after a short video went viral on social media earlier this week.
The main suspect, identified as Khuirem Herodas, a Meitei, was arrested on Thursday hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, breaking his nearly 80-day silence on Manipur violence, condemned the alleged sexual assault as “shameful” and promised tough action.
Three others also were arrested and a police official said were tracing at least 30 others involved in the crime.
“Local women pelted stones and burnt some parts of the house belonging to the prime accused in a village,” said Hemant Pandey, a senior police official in the state capital Imphal.
“We request women to protest peacefully as there is intense unease. We understand their rage,” he said.
Protests were planned in several parts of India by rights groups demanding justice and swift investigations into the latest incident to raise questions about the safety of women in the country.
The sexual assault was reported by the victims in May after ethnic clashes began in Manipur.
The fighting was triggered by a court order that the government should consider extending special benefits enjoyed by the tribal Kuki-Zo people to the majority Meitei population as well.
At least 130 people have been killed and more than 50,000 have fled their homes since the violence erupted. Homes and churches in dozens of villages have been torched.
The Kuki-Zo community is protesting Meitei demands for reserved public job quotas and college admissions as a form of affirmative action, stoking long-held fears that they might also be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for tribal groups.
“We want to know why police failed to take swift action when they knew that women were raped and paraded naked in Manipur,” said Radhika Burman, a student in the eastern city of Kolkata who is set to lead a public demonstration on Thursday.
Modi, who had not made any public remarks about the trouble in a state ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), spoke a day after the videos showing women being assaulted went viral.
Also on Thursday, India’s Supreme Court warned Modi’s government that if it does not act, “we will”.
Opposition MPs who have submitted notices in both houses of the parliament to discuss the violence in Manipur stalled the proceedings on Friday.
“Manipur needs complete attention and we demand the prime minister make an elaborate statement in the parliament,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the opposition Congress party.
Agreed, the corruption is laughable. But the best way to go about it is with peaceful protests. Burning down a suspected person’s house…I can’t agree with that line of thinking. Taking justice into your own hands isn’t a good way for a civilized society to behave. It’s really tough, but mob justice has killed innocent people all throughout history. I will never support it.
Ask the rape victims if they live in a civilised society. If a corrupt society refuses to give people justice then they have no option but to take matters into their own hands.
And ask all the innocent people killed by vigilante justice and mob justice throughout history if it actually achieved true justice.
What can you do if those in power can only do ‘condemnation’ ~2 months after the crime?
I’m not necessarily condoning this act, but throughout the history of human society, peaceful protest has rarely brought about meaningful change.
Would aiming this rage at a corrupted official who did nothing change that?
Peaceful protests achieve fucking nothing.
Peaceful protests have been pretty successful in India. Ever heard of Mahatma Gandhi?
A preferable alternative to the armed resistance and conflict already ongoing.
There can be no peaceful outcome without the threat of force if demands are not met.
History proves you wrong, though. Civil disobedience has worked in the past; it will work in the future. Violence and the threat of violence feeds a vicious circle where nobody wins.