ABC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and was widely shared on social media late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,\u201d Modi told reporters ahead of a parliamentary session in his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without making any direct references to the violence in Manipur, Modi urged heads of state governments to ensure the safety of women and said the incident is \u201cshameful for any civilized nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy heart is filled with pain and anger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur that has left more than 130 people dead since May, as mobs rampage through villages killing people and torching houses. The ethnic violence was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand from the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clashes have persisted despite the army’s presence in Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people tucked in the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar that is now divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias, and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police said the assault on the two women happened May 4, a day after the violence started in the state. According to a police complaint filed May 18, the two women were part of a family attacked by a mob that killed its two male members. The complaint alleges rape and murder by \u201cunknown miscreants.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state police have made the first arrest in the case, Manipur’s Chief Minister Biren Singh said on Twitter, without specifying the number of people who were apprehended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment. Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society,\u201d Singh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s Supreme Court, meanwhile, expressed its concern over the assault and asked the government to inform the court about the steps it has taken to apprehend the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a constitutional democracy it is unacceptable. If the government does not act, we will,\u201d Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are from the Kuki-Zo community, according to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders\u2019 Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident \u201ccondemnable and downright inhuman.” She said Thursday that investigations were underway and that \u201cno effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s main opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of \u201cturning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kharge said Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and rights activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndia will never forgive your silence,\u201d he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India\u2019s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as \u201cinterference\u201d in its internal affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABC News: NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable. A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and was widely shared on social media late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field. \u201cThe… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33458,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33456\/revisions\/33458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}