EMN
Dimapur, June 2
A students’ organization of the Tangkhul community in Delhi has alleged molestation and assault of a Tangkhul couple in at Kotla Mubarakpur of Delhi on the 28th of May. The Tangkhul Katamnao Long of Delhi, a students’ organization, issued a press release on Monday alleging that a group of 10-15 Meitei persons assaulted the Tangkhul couple at round 1:00 AM.
“The trouble began when the couple returned home after dinner. They were stopped by four-five men who refused to let them pass. When the victims objected, the men began to molest the wife and when the husband tried to defend her wife, he was also trashed. After the couple was sexually assaulted and physically assaulted, the accused fled from the spot,” the organization stated in the press release.
“The couple soon, called up local Police. After the police arrived, they noted down the incident and left after dropping the couple near their home, the accused came back with more people, 10-15 of them, and brutally assaulted the husband while four-five of them sexually assaulted the wife again. The molestation was accompanied by abusive and discriminatory language against the couple’s community with communal intent.”
The students’ organization stated that an FIR was lodged with the police that very day, “but so far, only one accused identified as Jimson has been arrested.” The “police inaction is also strongly condemned,” the press release stated. “A witness to the incident was also threatened and told to refrain from assisting the victims. One of the culprits claimed that he was the son of the Meitei MP and that the victims could not harm the accused.”
The organization has called the alleged incident “nothing but a manifestation of deeply rooted divide between the Meiteis and the Nagas in Manipur” and one in which “the voice of the Tangkhul has been suppressed for decades but the youth has had enough, the organization has stated. “We will not sit quietly while our sisters and mothers are molested and our brothers and fathers are assaulted and humiliated. Our voices should, and will be heard although we do not encourage violent acts.”
“Such continued acts reflect the continued hegemony by the Meiteis towards the minority Tangkhuls in particular, as well as other tribal communities in Manipur. We strongly believe there is a strong limit to such discrimination,” the students’ organization has stated.
The press release has alleged that the incident reflects the system that governs the Government of Manipur “that has politically structured permitting the majority Meiteis to continuously dominate and exploit other tribal communities of Manipur.”
