Manipur video: Houses of two who were part of mob set afire

Angry locals on Friday set ablaze the houses of two men who were allegedly a part of a mob that stripped and paraded naked three women two months ago.

Amid growing outrage against atrocities on women in Manipur, which is engulfed in ethnic violence since May 3, angry locals on Friday set ablaze the houses of two men who were allegedly a part of a mob that stripped and paraded naked three women two months ago, according to police officials aware of the details.

Houses were burnt in Manipur on Friday. (AFP)

While one of the men was arrested along with three others on Thursday, the second is among several others who are absconding in the case.

The alleged incident wherein the women were stripped and paraded naked took place on May 4, a day after violence broke out in the state, but came to light after videos of the same went viral on Wednesday. A horrific 30-second video of the sexual assault showed the men – who were identified in a first information report (FIR) as Meiteis – hooting and applauding as they groped the victims. The youngest of the three women was also allegedly gang-raped, according to FIR registered by Manipur police on May 18. All four arrested people were remanded in police custody for 11 days on Friday.

Police are yet to comment if the four accused belong to any group or were involved in any similar cases of murder or crimes against other women.

As the video clips triggered nationwide outrage, a large number of women set ablaze the house of main accused, Heirum Hera Das (32), in Yairipok in Thoubal district.

A similar scene took place in Wangjing Awang Leikai area of the district when another group of women set ablaze the home of a 20-year-old man, who is among those accused in the May 4 incident. This came hours after a police team arrived at the man’s house in search of him. The officials said that he is one of the suspects but his whereabouts remained unknown.

“The suspect is yet to be arrested. He possibly fled home after coming to know that police were looking for him,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

In a statement, Manipur police said: “The state police is making all out efforts to arrest the other culprits at the earliest. Raids are continuing.”

Police, however, did not comment on the houses being set ablaze.

Meanwhile, members of the Kuki community staged sit-in protests against the May 4 incident in various places in and around Imphal, including in Singjamei, Sagolband, Sekmai and Lamlai. Protests were also held in tribal areas such as Churachandpur.

“We strongly condemn the crime against women regardless of which community they belong to. The authorities should take necessary action,” said RK Tamphasana, a women protester at Sagolband in Imphal West.

Since May 3, the northeastern state has been gripped by ethnic clashes – primarily between the tribal Kukis, which mostly reside in the hill districts, and majority Meiteis, the dominant community in Imphal Valley – in which at least 150 people have died and over 50,000 have been displaced.

Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after Kuki groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community. Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders. The authorities quickly clamped a curfew and suspended internet, pumping in additional security forces to force a break in the spiraling clashes. Internet is still not back in the state.