Raped, burnt alive and shot dead: Women targeted in Meitei-Kuki conflict of Manipur

Guwahati: The killing of two women, one belonging to Hmar and another to the Meitei community, in less than 24 hours on Friday and Saturday (November 9 and 10) has once again brought to the fore how women have become targets of attacks and counter-attacks in the Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur since May last year.

A 31-year-old school teacher and mother of three children belonging to the Hmar community was allegedly targetted by a group of Meitei armed men at Zairawn village in Jiribam district as her husband and the children managed to flee.

The FIR lodged by the woman's husband alleged that she was caught by the armed members of Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei radical group, raped and set on fire at around 9 pm on Friday. Her charred body was recovered from the burnt houses hours later. Hmars are ethnically linked to the Kukis.

Hours later, a 27-year-old Meitei woman farmer, Ongbi Sofia Devi was killed by suspected Kuki insurgents while she was harvesting paddy in her field in the Saiton area in Meitei-dominated Bishnupur district on Saturday morning.

Eyewitnesses told police that Kuki insurgents fired from a nearby hill targetting the woman and killing her on the spot. According to security forces, this could be a "revenge attack" and a "counter" to the Jiribam incident.

Although organisations representing both communities launched protests demanding action against their killers, two leaders of women organisations of both the Meitei and the Kukis told DH on Sunday these are not isolated cases and women have been targetted since the conflict started in May last year.

"The Meiteis have been carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Kuki-Zo communities and they are not sparing the women and children. Our women have been raped, paraded naked in public and even set on fire in the most barbaric and inhuman way. There seems to be no end to their brutality as no strict action has been initiated against such heinous crime so far," Ngaineikim, president of Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights told DH from Kuki-dominated Churachandpur.

"There could be another reason. Since the women enjoy the highest honour in our tribal society, the radical Meitei armed groups are repeatedly targeting the women to show their muscle power," she said.

Lourembam Ngangbi, president of All Manipur Kanba Ima Lup, a Meitei women's organisation, termed the attack on the women as shameful and said the women were being used as a weapons in the armed conflict.

"The women and children should not be targetted in any conflict but the Kukis are not sparing them. Maybe they are doing so under the influence of drugs." She, however, did not say anything when asked about the similar killing of Kuki-Zo women allegedly by the Meitei armed persons.

Parading naked of two Kuki women by a Meitei mob in the Tengnoupal district and the burning of a Meitei Christian lady married to a Kuki man, her seven-year-old son and a relative inside an ambulance last year were among the gruesome incidents that shocked the nation after videos of the incidents became viral.

As per government records, nearly 250 people belonging to both communities have died while over 60,000 others have been displaced in the conflict.

According to the Kuki Students' Organisation, at least 207 deceased belonged to the Kuki-Zo communities while 41,425 were displaced. Meitei organisations claim that 114 people died and 31 others belonging to the community were still missing.

Hundreds of women have been living in relief camps and according to NGOs, women suffer the most as they have to look after their families while the men continue to struggle for work.

A timeline of incidents:

• May 4, 2023: Two Kuki women paraded naked by a mob in Kangpokpi district.

• June 4, 2023: A Meitei Christian woman married to a Kuki, her seven-year-old son and a woman relative were burnt alive inside an ambulance in Imphal West.

• September 1, 2024: A Meitei woman was killed while her eight-year-old daughter was injured in bombings allegedly by Kuki insurgents at Koutruk village in Imphal West.

• November 8: A Hmar (ethnically related to Kukis) woman was allegedly raped and burnt alive at Zairawn village in Jiribam district by suspected Meitei armed men.

• November 9: A 31-year-old Meitei woman farmer was gunned down by suspected Kuki insurgents in the Saiton area in the Bishnupur district.