Kuki-Zo Communities Hold Candlelight Vigil for Deceased Gang Rape Victim

The Kuki organisations allege lack of action against the perpetrators and renewed their demand for a separate administration.

Two years and eight months after her horrific ordeal, beset with medical complications and mental trauma, the 21-year-old girl died on January 11 afternoon at a government hospital in her native Singat, Churachandpur district, security sources said.

The victim was abducted from the New Checkon area of Imphal on the evening of May 15, 2023, at the peak of the violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zos that has claimed 260 lives and displaced more than 60,000 people.

Her death has brought the Kuki-Zo community together in grief and triggered a renewed call for speedy justice, accountability at every level to prevent a repeat, and a separate administration for Kuki-Zo.

In her complaint with police in Kuki-Zo-majority Kangpokpi, lodged on July 21, 2023, the victim said that she had been raped by three of her four abductors.

It is significant that CBI special court Assam has already framed charges against the accused and trial has started onto the case which was probed by the CBI.

Sources said the victim had eventually escaped her tormentors and, helped by an auto-rickshaw driver, reached her home on May 16. She left Imphal the same day and arrived in Kangpokpi via Senapati district to receive medical attention.

During her long battle for survival, she also received treatment in Guwahati, her family and Kuki-Zo organisations said.

After the tragic demise of the horrifying gang rape victim, the Kuki groups based in Churachandpur have renewed their demand for a separate administration for the Kuki community, arguing that coexistence with the Meitei community is no longer possible. They said that the survivor’s death has intensified the sense of insecurity among Kuki-Zo residents.