Angry Women Burns Suspect’s House Over Naked Women Video

In a northeastern state where months of ethnic unrest have claimed at least 120 lives, a group of enraged ladies allegedly set fire to the home of an Indian guy suspected of assaulting two women naked.

Apparently from the Meitei community, a mob is seen in the video jeering and harassing two ladies who are believed to be from the Kuki tribal group as they walk along the street naked.

The dispute over job quotas and land rights that broke out between the primarily Christian Kuki and the primarily Hindu Meitei in May has been sporadic fighting ever since.

The revelation of the women’s humiliation, which occurred in May, sparked indignation throughout the nation, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that it had “shamed India.”

Four suspects were detained by police on Thursday, and on the same day, a group of women activists set fire to one of the men’s Imphal home by throwing stacks of hay at it.

The women, who were also Meitei community members like the accused, used sticks to knock down the house’s walls and roof as the fire burned.

India is often orthodox, patriarchal, and conservative, however, the Meitei have a history of women’s advocacy and a society where women play a more prominent role than elsewhere.

Friday saw demonstrations across India in response to the footage of the bare-chested women, with protesters demanding the resignation of the state’s chief minister for the lack of action.

“Can normal people do these things?… Even cats, dogs, animal(s) never committed these kinds of filthy acts,” said one demonstrator near Imphal, where hundreds of women gathered to protest.

“This is not even how human beings treat other humans,” she said.

India’s Supreme Court warned Modi’s government Thursday that if it does not act, “we will”.

Authorities in Manipur, including those in the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that as soon as the naked women video appeared on social media, police reacted.

The state’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, tweeted on Thursday that a “thorough investigation” was ongoing.

He continued, “We will make sure that all of the offenders face strict action, including looking into the possibility of the death penalty.”

The Kuki community resisted Meitei’s demands for reserved public employment quotas and college admissions as a form of affirmative action, igniting long-standing concerns that they could also be permitted to purchase land in regions currently set aside for indigenous tribes. This led to the unrest in Manipur.

Tens of thousands of people fled to camps run by the government after homes and churches were set on fire.

Manipur Tribal Forum, a civil society organization, claimed in a thorough report submitted to the Supreme Court in June that state officials had not looked into numerous horrible incidents of violence, such as rape and beheading.

One such event surfaced on Twitter on Thursday and vanished from the platform within hours, according to reports, depicting a BJP lawmaker’s assistant in the state clutching the severed head of a victim.