MOIRANG: In the sectarian violence that has ravaged India’s Manipur state, women have been victims of brutal attacks. Residents and security officials say they are also at the forefront of the conflict, picking up arms, blocking troops and according to police complaints, instigating sexual assaults.

India’s north-eastern states have been historically prone to insurgencies and ethnic violence but the vicious conflict between majority Meiteis and minority tribal Kukis in Manipur hit world headlines last month when a video surfaced of two Kuki women being paraded naked through a jeering mob. In a police complaint, one of the women said she was raped and her father and brother killed.

Kukis say a loosely formed group of Meitei women, known as Meira Paibis, or Women Torchbearers, is responsible for instigating some of the rapes of women of the minority community. The Meiteis deny the accusation but the incidents underline the bitterness between communities in the small state on the border with Myanmar.

“Women’s’ participation in it (the rapes) underscores the absolute breakdown of all social ties,” said Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group who has written a report on the Manipur conflict.

“It has made the physical and emotional divide between the communities complete and reconciliation now looks unattainable.” India’s Supreme Court announced this week that it will monitor investigations into cases of sexual violence in the state.

Manipur police chief Rajiv Singh and other senior police officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the cases of sexual violence.

Since the fighting began in early May, at least 180 people, including 21 women, have been killed and tens of thousands made homeless, according to government data.

Security forces say women also block peacekeeping operations, taking advantage of laws that prevent male troops from any physical confrontation with women. They also occupy bunkers on the frontlines, rifles in hand.

In one case of sexual assault, a 19-year-old Kuki tribal woman said she was raped near the state capital Imphal on May 15 by three men after she was taken to a group of Meira Paibis and beaten in their presence.

“One of the women from the mob gave clear instructions to four men to kill me,” she said in a police complaint filed on July 21. She escaped and said she had been too scared to file the report earlier.

Police did not answer questions about the case and there is no record of any arrests.

Moirangthen Thoibi Devi, a Meira Paibis member in Moirang town near Imphal, said suggestions that any Meitei woman could instigate or even support acts of sexual violence were completely “untrue”.

“Meira Paibis does not differentiate between Kuki or Meitei,” she said, speaking alongside a group of other Meitei women. “Kuki mothers are also in pain, Meitei mothers are also in pain.”

The women said they had heard of nine Meitei women being raped, but they had no evidence and were not directly aware of any incidents.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2023