After Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh made a shocking admission on Thursday that many more cases similar to the parading of a naked woman on the streets of Phainom village in Kangpokpi District took place in the State, reports have surfaced about four more such cases of rape and murder that occurred back-to-back between May 3 and May 6.

The disclosure was made by a group of ten Kuki-Zomi MLAs, seven of them from the BJP, and later by two tribal groups to the National Commission for Women (NCW) on June 12 itself. These MLAs released a statement highlighting four other incidents where women belonging to the community have either been raped or murdered since May 3. Their statement comes in the wake of the recent cruelty to women who were paraded naked on May 4 in the Kangkopi district of Manipur.

The statement also mentioned a few other incidents of rape and murder in Manipur. “The murder of a Kuki-Zomi mother and her two daughters in their residence at Uripok, Imphal; the kidnapping of a Kuki-Zomi woman from Checkon and brutally raped twice in Langol and Ngarian Hill; the lynching of two nursing students in Porompat, left to die on the streets but miraculously survived; the merciless killing of a Kuki-Zomi mentally unsound woman in the heart of Imphal city are the most inhumane and barbaric crimes against women and humanity,” the statement read.

MLA LM Khaute shared the statement on Twitter also highlighting the brutal case of the beheading of David Thiek, terming these as cases of “barbarism and crimes of utmost savagery”.

The Kuki Zomi MLAs strongly condemned these acts of cruelty and savagery perpetrated by the Meitei militias against their fellow helpless, defenceless, and innocent Kuki-Zo people and demanded a CBJ probe in such cases.

Meanwhile, according to CNN-News18, two tribal organisations in Manipur claimed that they wrote to the NCW on June 12 about the horrific brutalisation of Kuki women, a video of which has now gone viral, but received no response. The North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) and Kuki academics based in India and the USA had sent a letter to the commission 37 days before the video of the Kuki women being paraded naked and gang-raped shook the country.

In their letter, they detailed what happened to the Kuki survivor, stating that on May 4, two women from B Phainom village of Kangpokpi District were disrobed, paraded naked, beaten, and then encircled by a marauding Meitei mob and raped in public. The State police commandos remained mere spectators to the lynchings and torching of homes. The victims are now housed at a Churachandpur district relief camp.

In a press statement, the NCW acknowledged receiving the complaint and said: “Another complaint was received from individuals outside Manipur out of which one was from outside India. In this regard, the D.O letter dated 19/06/2023 from Commission (NCW) was immediately sent to CS for taking necessary action.”

However, questions remain about the delay in addressing the issue earlier. On July 20, when the video of the violence went viral, NCW tweeted that it had taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and asked the DGP for answers. “NCW condemns the Manipur incident. Taking suo moto cognizance. The DGP Manipur has been asked to promptly take appropriate action. @sharmarekha @MinistryWCD” the tweet said.

The letter written by the group highlighted several instances of rape and sexual assault, urging the NCW to urgently assess the disproportionate victimization of Kuki-Zomi indigenous tribal women through brutal and inhumane acts of sexual violence, including rape, kidnapping, public lynching, immolation, and murder. They appealed for the Commission to recognize these abhorrent practices as serious abuses of the fundamental human and women’s rights of Kuki-Zomi women. The letter also listed five other incidents of alleged sexual violence that required suo moto cognizance from the NCW.

According to them, on May 3 at about 9 pm, mobs stormed the Manipur University campus in Imphal. They brandished sticks and knives in their systematic attempts to locate students, staff, and faculty from the Kuki-Zomi communities. Female students were forced out of their hostels, verbally harassed, and abused by the mob. Nengneivah, a Kuki-Zo Ph.D research scholar, hid in her hostel bathroom until the Assam Rifles rescued defenceless students at 3.15 am. She could hear the mobs conducting room-to-room searches and shouting slogans such as, “Sida Kuki Nupi Leibra?” (Is there any Kuki woman here?) and “Kuki Nupi Hatlo” (Kill Kuki women).

On May 4, 22-year-old Agnes Neikhohat and her friend, students at the Nightingale Nurse Institute in Imphal, were harassed and assaulted by a Meitei mob of about 40 people. “Rape her! Torture her! Cut her into pieces!” Meitei women shouted as the attackers pummeled Ms. Haokip, knocking out her front teeth.

On May 5, Themnu and Chongpi, young women in their twenties, hailing from H Khopibung village of Kangpokpi district, were raped and murdered in the Konung Mamang area of Imphal. Meitei miscreants gagged, dragged, and confined the women in a closed room for 2 hours. Their employer could not protect them, and when the room was finally opened at about 7 pm, it was filled with a mixture of blood and hair, and the victims had succumbed to their injuries from the brutal assaults. The victims’ bodies remain in the JNIMS (Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences) morgue in Imphal to date, and the victims’ parents cannot retrieve the bodies to conduct last rites due to the prevailing volatile situation.

On May 6, a forty-five-year-old widow and mother of two, Thiandam Vaiphei, was brutally butchered, shot, and burned by Meitei mobs in Pheitaiching village of Kangpokpi district.