New Delhi: A 31-year-old woman, Zosangkim, was allegedly shot at, beaten, sexually assaulted and burnt alive Thursday night in a brutal attack on Zairawn, a Hmar-dominated village in Manipur’s Jiribam district.
According to local residents and tribal groups, 80 to 100 armed assailants, allegedly from the Meitei community and radical armed Meitei group Arambai Tenggol, opened fire at the villagers and set as many as 17 homes ablaze, escalating violence in the region.
“Around 9 pm last night, we heard gunfire and immediately began running,” recounted a resident of Zairawn, whose house was also set ablaze. “They came in two teams—one opened fire on residents while the other started burning our homes,” the resident, who lives directly across from Zosangkim’s house, told ThePrint Friday.
“They didn’t just burn our houses—they looted everything: furniture, vehicles, even ceiling fans,” he said. “They came in vehicles and loaded up all our belongings. My entire house is destroyed. We had no weapons; we were completely helpless.”
Locals told ThePrint that Zosangkim, a mother of three—two daughters, aged 9 and 7, and a son aged 3—was shot at in her thigh and got injured while trying to escape. Her husband managed to carry her about half a kilometre away, around 10 pm. He quickly took their children to a secure location, but when he returned for his wife, she had disappeared from the spot. She was later found beaten up and burnt alive in her own house.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior police officer said miscreants, suspected to be members of the valley-based Arambai Tenggol, had attacked Zairawn village late at night, opened fire and set houses ablaze. He added that although the area was under security, the miscreants had slipped in.
“They were heavily armed with sophisticated weapons. It was late in the night and they took advantage of that. A case in this regard has been registered. We are carrying combing operations in the area. The situation is under control,” the senior police officer said.
When asked if Zosangkim had been raped, the officer said: “The complainants have alleged that the woman was sexually assaulted so we took the additional complaint and added sections in the case of arson which was filed. The post-mortem exam of the woman is yet to be conducted.”
Most of the villagers are now seeking shelter in the homes of their Muslim friends in a nearby area.
The local resident mentioned earlier said: “We thought we were protected here in our village, with the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) stationed nearby. But we’re helpless. They saw what was happening—they were right there, surrounding us—but they did nothing to help. They didn’t protect us at all. So what’s the point of their presence here if we’re still not safe?”
The Indigenous Tribes Advocacy Committee (ITAC) of Pherzawl and Jiribam districts has strongly condemned the violence.
In a statement, it expressed deep distrust in the Manipur government machinery, including state forces and police, and urged the central government to intervene.
“We request the central government to step in to protect the innocent Kuki-Zomi-Hmar people in Jiribam and Pherzawl districts,” says a statement by the body.
“For the past two to three months, there hasn’t been any conflict or firing in Jiribam,” John Hmar, spokesperson of ITAC, said. “People began to believe that life might finally return to normal. Many had just returned to their homes and villages for a few days, thinking it was safe. And now, suddenly, this violence has erupted again. I don’t even have the words—it’s incredibly painful for us and for our community.”
‘Post-mortem exam in Assam’
Kh. Robinsun Singh (MPS), Superintendent of Police for Jiribam, has requested permission from the District Magistrate to conduct the victim’s post-mortem exam at Silchar Medical College and Hospital in Assam.
In his letter, which ThePrint has accessed, Singh has also requested that an executive magistrate be deputed to oversee the examination, with permission to allow video coverage.
“Jiribam district has no proper facility of forensic medicine and the same is available at Imphal (and it) is very much inconvenient to transport the body from Jiribam to Imphal by road along NH-37 due to the ongoing ethnic crisis in the state,” Singh says in the letter.
“Considering the utmost requirement of post-mortem examination of the body to ascertain the cause of death, the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Ghungoor, Cachar, Assam, is the nearest and feasible institute to conduct the post-mortem examination in connection with the above referred case,” he adds.
According to the letter, a FIR has been registered in the matter at Jiribam police station under Sections 103(2), 64(1), 324(5), 331(4), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as Sections 25(I-A) of the Arms Act and Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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The Kuki-Zomi-Hmar people are not Indian. They never were. They are Myanmarese and over the last several decades, in connivance with the Mizos and various church organizations, have illegally immigrated and settled on Indian land.
All of them must be rounded up and deported back to Myanmar.
The Indo-Myanmar border must be fenced and patrol teams should be authorised to shoot down anyone trying to cross the border into India.