Manipur video: Fought for country but couldn’t protect wife, says Kargil veteran
A video showing two women being paraded naked and molested in Manipur’s Kangpokpi surfaced on Wednesday and has sparked massive outrage.
Opposition leaders have raised questions about the safety of women and the role of police in maintaining law and order.
The husband of one of the women seen in the video is an ex-army man who also fought in the Kargil War. He had served in the Indian Army as a Subedar of the Assam Regiment.
Speaking about the disturbing incident, he said, “I fought for the nation in the Kargil war and was also in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. I protected the nation but am dejected that after my retirement, I could not protect my home, my wife and fellow villagers.”
Talking to a Hindi news channel, the ex-army man said that he was “sad” and “depressed”. He demanded action against the accused. “Police were present but took no action. I want all those people who burnt the houses and humiliated the women to get exemplary punishment,” he said.
“I have seen the war fighting in the front at Kargil. And when I have returned home (after my retirement), my own place is more dangerous than the battlefield,” he told Times of India.
“They came to our village and started burning down houses. All the villagers tried to flee to save their lives and my wife got separated from me. She and four other villagers hid in the forest. Some of the attackers, who entered the village chasing our pigs and poultry, found them hiding there,” he said.
By then, the retired soldier and other villagers who were rounded up by the attackers were brought to the village dirt road.
“I could see them taking my wife and the others to a distance,” he said.
The old video is from May 4, a day after violence broke out in Manipur. Clashes first rocked the state during a Tribal Solidarity March, that was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
An FIR was filed in the matter on June 21, well over a month after the incident. Three women were forced to strip naked, as detailed in the FIR. One of the women, aged 21, was gang-raped. When her brother, a 19-year-old, attempted to intervene, he was killed.
Four people have been arrested in connection with the case on Thursday, a day after the video surfaced.
More than 160 people have lost their lives, and several have been injured since ethnic violence broke out.