GUWAHATI: A 20-year-old Kuki-Zo woman died on January 10, 2026, due to prolonged illness after she was abducted and sexually assaulted during the ethnic violence in Manipur in 2023. Kuki-Zo organisations said that the woman had never fully recovered from the gang-rape.
The woman is survived by her parents and three siblings.
The woman's death has triggered condemnation from tribal organisations and left parties who have cited the woman's death as a 'testimony to the ruthless manner in which Kuki-Zo people have been targeted'.
Kuki-Zo Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) organised a candlelight vigil to pay tributes to her.
In a statement, the ITLF said, “Her death is yet another painful testimony to the ruthless manner in which the Kuki-Zo people have been targeted,” adding that they "now have no other option but to demand a separate administration for our safety, dignity, and survival."
The Kuki-Zo Women's Forum, Delhi & NCR, issued a statement: “For nearly three years, she carried pain that no human being should ever have to bear.”
“Initially, she was reluctant to file an FIR as she was deeply traumatised. But when a video showing two women being paraded naked went viral, she mustered the courage and filed the FIR,” Kim Haokip, media in-charge of Kuki-Zo Women Forum, Delhi, told TNIE.
She further stated that the woman had developed uterine complications and was in and out of hospital. “She suffered for more than two and a-half-years,” Haokip said.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said the deceased was a victim of the divisive politics of BJP-RSS in Manipur.
The woman had lodged the FIR with the Kangpokpi police station on May 21, 2023. Later, the case was transferred to the Porompat police station in Imphal as the place of occurrence fell under its jurisdiction. No arrest has been made so far.
The FIR stated that the then 18-year-old girl was abducted from an ATM booth in Imphal’s New Checkon area. Four armed men arrived at the spot, shoved her in a car and drove to a hilltop where three of them took turns to rape the young woman, the FIR added.
The FIR further stated that when the four were arguing over whether she should be killed or let off, one of them tried to turn the car around but it accidentally hit her and she “fell off.”
The woman miraculously survived after the fall and went home in Imphal’s New Lambulane area with the help of an auto-rickshaw driver. Her family left Imphal for Kangpokpi the next day. She was taken to the Kangpokpi district hospital for treatment but it referred her to a hospital in Nagaland capital Kohima as her condition was “critical.”
The Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO), Delhi & NCR, alleged that no action was taken against the accused despite repeated appeals by civil society organisations.
“We categorically assert that her death must be officially recognised as resulting from the violence committed against her in 2023. Any attempt to treat it otherwise would amount to a denial of justice and an erasure of responsibility,” the KSO Delhi & NCR said in a statement.
The organisation called upon the Centre to expedite the process of creating a separate administration for the tribals, which is “both necessary and unavoidable”.
At least 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in the ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur since May 2023. The state has been under President’s Rule since February last year.
(With inputs from PTI)