National

바카라Justice Is Dead바카라: Manipur Remains Divided On Ethnic Lines

A year after ethnic clashes broke out between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur, survivors and kin of victims of sexual and physical violence await justice.

Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_9
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

바카라Justice Is Dead바카라, reads a poster in the hands of an effigy that greets visitors entering the Kuki-Zo dominated Churachandpur district of Manipur.

1/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_2
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

A poster declaring 바카라Separation Only Solution바카라 along with a Zomi flag in Churachandpur where Kuki-Zo communities have demanded a separate administration following last year바카라s ethnic clashes.

2/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_4
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Members of tribal civil body Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) stand in front of a 바카라wall of remembrance바카라 outside the KSO office in Kangpokpi to commemorate the Kuki-Zo victims who lost their lives in the ethnic clashes with Meiteis that erupted in May last year.

3/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_5
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

A 19-year-old gang-rape survivor awaits justice in Kangpokpi. She was allegedly kidnapped from an ATM on May 4, 2024, beaten by a mob and later sexually assaulted before she managed to escape. No one has yet been arrested.

4/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_6
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Growing demand for separate administration for hill regions among Kuki-Zo communities in Churachandpur.

5/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_7
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

A shop formerly owned by a Kuki in an Imphal East market which was torched by Meitei mobs during ethnic clashes in the first week of May last year.

6/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_8
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

The displaced family of a Kuki woman and her eight year old son, burned alive in an ambulance along with a Meitei woman last year, await justice.

7/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_10
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Multi바카라-coloured Kangleipak바카라 flags representing the old kingdom of Manipur being sold on streets of Imphal, which has seen a revival of indigenous Meitei nationalism and religion since the conflict.

8/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_11
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

With hill and valley divided on ethnic lines, locals in hill regions claim that 바카라separate administration바카라 is the only way forward for both the communities.

9/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_12
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Ima Ngambi, one of the 12 Manipur mothers belonging to Meira Paibi (a civil society group of Meitei women), who stripped naked in 2004 in protest after the allege rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama in Imphal East. Hailed as peacekeepers of Manipur, the Meira Paibi have been named as perpetrators and facilitators of violence against Kuki-Zo women since clashes last year.

10/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_14
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Violence against women has been a problem for decades in Manipur and the recent conflict once again highlighted the vulnerability of women as tools of war.

11/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_14
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

While several cases of violence and sexual violence against women from Kuki-Zo community were reported last year, investigations have remained slow.

12/12
Sexual and physical violence victims during Manipur ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo_1
Photo: Sandipan Chatterjee/Outlook

Kuki-Zo women protesting in Torbung village against the recent decision to replace Assam Rifles troops from tribal-majority hill regions like Churachandpur and Kangpokpi with CRPF forces.

CLOSE