Manipur parading incident: All four accused remanded to 11-day police custody

Manipur police on Friday said all four accused of parading two tribal women naked in Kangpokpi district have been remanded to 11-day police custody.

Police said the first arrested person - Huirem Heradash Singh - was seen prominently directing the mob at B. Phainom village of Kangpokpi district in the 26-second video that surfaced on Wednesday.

More than 160 people have lost their lives, and several have been injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley, while tribals, which include Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mostly in the hill districts.

One of the women seen in the video is the wife of an ex-army man who had served in the Indian Army as a Subedar of the Assam Regiment and even fought in the Kargil War. Speaking about the incident, the retired soldier expressed his deep disappointment, saying, "I fought for the nation in the Kargil war and protected the nation, but after my retirement, I couldn't protect my home, my wife, and fellow villagers."

In a heart-wrenching interview with a Times of India, the ex-army man described feeling "sad" and "depressed" over the incident. He demanded exemplary punishment for the perpetrators, emphasising that the police were present during the attack but failed to take any action to protect the victims.

Recounting the horrifying events, he revealed that a group of attackers had entered their village and began burning down houses. The villagers tried to flee to safety, but his wife and four others got separated and hid in the forest. The attackers, chasing the animals, discovered them hiding there. The attackers then took his wife and the other women to a distance, where they subjected them to the horrific abuse captured in the video.

The FIR filed on June 21, detailed how three women were forced to strip naked, and one of them, a 21-year-old, was gang-raped. Tragically, her 19-year-old brother, who tried to intervene, was killed in the brutal attack.