New Delhi, July 21, 2023 (PPI-OT): All Ten Kuki-Zomi MLAs of the Manipur legislative assembly have expressed their deep condemnation of the heinous incident that occurred on May 4 in the Kangkopi district of Manipur, where women were subjected to a horrifying act of public nudity. In an official statement, the Kuki Zomi MLAs said that this incident has shocked the conscience of Indians.
“We strongly condemn these acts of cruelty and savagery perpetrated by the Meitei militias against our fellow helpless, defenceless and innocent Kuki-Zo people, that have equally shocked the conscience of our fellow Indians,” the statement read. Of the ten MLAs, seven belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Apart from the incident whose video went viral on social media, the MLAs also pointed out that there were more rape cases during the violence in Manipur. The statement gave examples of those incidents such as the kidnapping of a Kuki-Zo woman from Checkon [who was] brutally raped twice in the Langol and Ngarian Hill.
“Khopibung at Imphal Konung Mamang, the murder of a Kuki-Zo mother and her two daughters in their residence at Uripok, Imphal, the kidnapping of a Kuki-Zo woman from Checkon 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-Zo mentally unsound woman in the heart of Imphal city are the most inhumane and barbaric crimes against women and humanity,” said the statement.
“Among the over 114 confirmed deaths so far and other barbaric crimes against the Kuki-Zomi community, this tragic incident, the brutal rapes and murder of two Kuki-Zomi women from H,” the statement added. MLA L.M. Khaute shared a copy of the press statement on Twitter.
In a strong appeal to the Government of India, the MLAs demanded that all these heinous cases, including the killings of the Kuki-Zo people, during the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Manipur, be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. They urged the government to bring all the culprits responsible for these crimes to justice without delay. The statement highlighted another brutal case of the beheading of David Thiek, and called these as cases of “barbarism and crimes of utmost savagery’”.
Theik, 31, was a Kuki youth guarding his village, according to reports. According to Indian media, citing sources, Mairembam Romesh Mangang, a security guard of Kumbi Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Shanti Kumar alias Sanisam Premchandra Singh, has been accused of allegedly murdering Thiek. Thiek’s head was chopped and was placed on a wall made up of bamboo sticks in a residential area in the Bishnupur district, the report added.
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