By M.Devanand Sharma
Imphal (Manipur), Aug 11: Meira Paibis, a collective of Meitei women, on Friday staged sit-in demonstrations across five districts of Imphal Valley in protest against the alleged gangrape of a 37-year-old woman in Churachandpur on May 3, when the ongoing ethnic violence started.
The survivor alleged she was gangraped by a group of men while fleeing her burning house in Khumujamba Leikai in Churachandpur, police said.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged with Bishnupur women police station on August 9 and the matter was later forwarded to Churachandpur police station for investigation, they said.
In protest against the incident, Meira Paibis staged sit-in demonstrations in Keisampat, Uripok and Singjamei areas in Imphal West district and Kongba and Khurai in Imphal East district. Similar protests were also held in Bishnupur, Kakching and Thoubal districts.
Ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 and has been continuing for the last three months, killing more than 160 people and leaving thousands homeless.
Meanwhile, Cases have been registered against an author and two academicians from the Kuki-Zo community for allegedly distorting Manipur’s history in a book based on a complaint by The Federation of Haomee, an Imphal-based civil society organisation.
Anglo-Kuki War 1917-1919 is written by Retd. Col (Dr) Vijay Chenji and edited by academicians Jangkhomang Guite and Thongkholal Haokip.
Manipur Police have booked Chenji, Guite and Haokip under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to waging war against the Indian government, promoting enmity between different groups and using as true a declaration known to be false, a media report said.
The complainants alleged that Anglo-Kuki War 1917-1919 incorrectly depicted a Kuki rebellion from 1917 to 1919 as an Anglo-Kuki war and claimed that no Anglo-Kuki war took place in Manipur’s history.
