Advocacy groups condemned Indian authorities this week for an alleged brutal crackdown on Christians, including particularly severe episodes of violence against Christian women, by “security forces” in northern Manipur, where anti-Christian mob violence has displaced thousands.
The incident is believed to have occurred on December 31, according to the British Asian Christian Association (BACA), which cited local organizations representing the Kuki-Zo minority tribe in its report this week. The Kuki-Zo are one of dozens of minority tribes living in Manipur, many of which are majority Christian and live under the threat of routine violence by mobs of men from the Hindu-majority Meitei tribe, the largest in the region.
Local Kuki-Zo groups told BACA that over 30 women were “severely injured,” including some in critical condition in hospitals, in the incident. The women had reportedly been protesting and camping out on the border between land understood to be Kuki-Zo and Meitei, respectively, since Christmas Eve, “following reports of militant attacks by the Meitei community.” After a week of the protests, members of Indian law enforcement reportedly attacked the women in an attempt to end the manifestation. BACA identified “Police Commandos, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and other armed units” as aiding the attack.
“Videos shared by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) show harrowing scenes of women being manhandled, pushed, and dragged,” BACA reported. “One woman is seen lying injured on the ground, while others display severe injuries to their heads and backs.”
The organization also shared a statement from the Kuki Women Union condemning security forces for adding to the danger to Kuki-Zo people already posed by “incessant attacks from the secessionist Meitei community since Christmas Eve.” The group insisted that the attacks occurred in undisputed Kuki territory and described the behavior of government forces as “baffling.”
Another organization, the World Kuki-Zo Intellectual Council (WKZIC), on Monday published graphic images of women they claimed were battered in the attacks, with bodies boasting bruises apparently on their entire faces and deep slashes to their torso, among other injuries. The group called this weekend for the Indian government to withdraw “biased Central fores” from Kuki regions and threatened a massive global protest movement if the violence continued.
The WKZIC has faced legal persecution by the regional government of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a member of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government opened a police case against the group in October 2023 on grounds of alleged “terrorist” activity and has since made efforts to ban its activities..
“We are a global group. We do not hide any of our activity. We would like to see peace, but so many rights violations are happening,” an anonymous senior member of the group told NDTV in May 2024. “The state government cannot be trusted, so we appeal to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to intervene and solve the Manipur problem.”
The many tribes of Manipur have long lived alongside each other uneasily, the Kuki-Zo typically occupying the hill areas and the Meiteis in the valleys. That uneasy coexistence gave way to horrific violence in spring 2023 after the Meitei attempted to apply for “scheduled tribe” status from the federal government, a designation intended for marginalized minority groups that would greatly increase the tribe’s political power. The smaller tribes of Manipur organized peaceful protests, attracting tens of thousands of people, against granting the Meitei designated status that the Meiteis responded to by burning down entire Christian communities, displacing thousands, and engaging in atrocities such as the public raping and humiliation of Christian women.
The initial outpouring of mob violence in May 2023 resulted in at least 35,000 people losing their homes and dozens dead, as well as the burning down of Christian businesses, churches, and other important social locations. Manipur University, administered by the Kuki-Zo tribe, also suffered vandalism and violence.
Some reports at the time indicated that the Meitei mobs did not stop with attacks on Kuki-Zo, but targeted the minority Meitei Christians.
“They targeted their own brethren who follow Christ by burning their churches,” a local Christian leader denounced. “If this is not a pogrom, what is?”
Speaking to Breitbart News at the time, the then-president of Global Christian Relief David Curry said that the ease with which the mobs engaged in violent acts in Manipur suggests a level of tolerance on the part of the BJP government.
“The police, the local police, don’t protect the Christian churches and in some ways aid and abet the rioters,” Curry explained, “so the bigger systemic problem is, why does the central government allow this to happen? Why do local municipalities and policemen allow these attacks against churches and Christians and facilitate it?”
He noted that “many of the videos we get are being posted by the rioters themselves,” who show off their cruelty “because there are no repercussions.”
A video emerged on social media in July of a particularly harrowing incident in which a mob of men paraded two Christian women in the streets naked and raped one of them publicly.
“The police were there with the mob which was attacking our village,” one of the two women later said in an anonymous interview. “The police picked us up from near home and took us a little away from the village and left us on the road with the mob. We were given to them by police.”
The Hindu nationalist federal government of India has taken little to no action to contain the violence in Manipur. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, violence against Christian Indians has skyrocketed as Indian law enforcement authorities turn a blind eye, prompting vocal condemnations from Christian aid charities around the world. When asked, Modi has denied that religious discrimination exists in his country, claiming the criticisms “surprise” him.
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