Moreh, March 10 (MExN): The Women Action for Development (WAD) on Tuesday expressed shock at the news of a woman who was found dead at Moreh, Sinai Veng, ward 7 on March 9.
Her dead body was found inside an unoccupied house in suspicious way, the WAD statement said while alleging with “deep fear and suspect that she was gang raped and murdered.”
WAD mentioned that such killing of a minor girl from Chandrakhong, Thoubal district had occurred in 2019. The women organization accused the security personnel of committing similar crime against women in May 2017, November 18, 2019, January 2020 and others in the past. It expressed fear that ‘systematic targeting of women’ at Moreh in particular and Manipur in general is being organised by a group of people.
Stating that Moreh is under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, WAD highlighted past incidents of violence against women where the Assam Rifles was involved. “It is extremely sad and unfortunate that the present security forces and Intelligence of the security forces find it difficult to protect women and the same goes to all of us too as civilians,” it added.
Urging the Police and the Government of Manipur to arrest the perpetrators at the earliest, it called for action against the accused and also demanded the replacement of the AR posted at Moreh and Khudengthabi and called for replacing all the AR check-post with CISF immediately. It also suggested establishing a Special investigating team (SIT) for independent and impartial investigations. “Conduct an independent and impartial investigation against the 11th and 12th Assam Rifles for committing sexual offences,” the WAD statement demanded.
