Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed that “the guilty will not be spared” after two Christian women were paraded around naked before being led to a field where they were allegedly gang raped by a mob of Hindu men in the Manipur region.
Although local media says the attack took place on the 4th of May last, video capturing part of the assault began to circulate online this week drawing widespread attention from the international community.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) condemned the violence saying that the women begged for mercy while being repeatedly molested by the Meitei Hindu men before being led to the field.
The victims were identified as tribal Kuki-Zo Christians from the Kangpokpi district, one in her twenties and the other in her fifties.
Local news says that two male relatives who tried to defend them, one a teenager, were bludgeoned to death by the mob.
Modi vowed that, “the law will take its course with all its might,”adding, “What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,”
This attack is only the latest in a series of violent outbursts in the region situated in northeast India where at least 140 people have been killed in the past two months with reports that the conflict has caused the displacement of around 50,000 people.
The religious conflict was reportedly inflamed when members of the majority Hindu Meitei population sought permission to purchase land in an area populated by Christians and other minorities.
Since then villages have been attacked with houses being burnt to the ground.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a charity which provides pastoral and practical assistance to persecuted Christians, says that the main causes of religious discrimination are authoritarian governments, Islamist extremists, and ethno-religious nationalism.
In their 2023 report on religious freedom, ACN said that 33 countries worldwide demonstrated “deteriorating religious freedom conditions,” which include fines and prison sentences for both Christian converts and their “spiritual guide”.
In the Middle East punishment for apostasy, or leaving Islam, can go as far as the death penalty with ACN saying that in parts of Asia textbooks have been “revised in favor of the majoritarian religion” in order to “eliminate the historical contribution of religious minorities”.
In countries where Christians are categorised as being “under observation” ACN says that attacks on religious sites and intimidation of religious communities are “justified under the guise of progressive social causes,”
The charity says that extremist groups and individuals exploit social media platforms in order to target members of the Christian minority as well as to recruit followers, spread “radical ideologies”, and coordinate attacks on religious communities.
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