Four men have been arrested after at least two women were stripped and paraded naked through the streets in India.
The nation is reeling after footage was circulated on Wednesday of the women, aged around 23 and 35, being groped by a mob that then allegedly gang-raped them in the north-eastern state of Manipur.
Violence has been raging in Manipur since May 3 after clashes broke out between the state’s Kuki and Meitei tribes.
At least 130 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence so far, with several hundred injured and more than 35,000 displaced, either out of fear of being attacked or because their houses were torched.
On May 4, a mob attacked a village in Kangpokpi district, according to a police report. Five people, including three women from the Kuki tribe, were rescued by police but a group of around 900 to 1,000 people, apparently Meiteis, allegedly blocked the officers.
The mob killed one of the men, while the three women were forced to strip before two were paraded naked and taken to a paddy field, where they were allegedly raped.
Police confirmed that four men were arrested on Thursday in connection with the incident.
The women were paraded in the street on May 4 in Nongpok Sekmai village in Thoubal district, around 32 kilometres from Imphal, the state capital.
The video shows several men walking alongside the women - who are seen crying and trying to cover their bodies - as they are led into a field.
One of the victims told The Associated Press news agency that the men who assaulted them were part of a mob that had earlier torched their village.
“They forced us to remove our clothes and said we will be killed if we don’t do as told,” the woman said over the phone.
“Then they made us walk naked. They abused us. They touched us everywhere - on our breasts, our genitals.”
She said they were then led into a field where they were both sexually assaulted.
The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.
According to a police complaint filed on Tuesday, the two women were part of a family attacked by a mob that killed its two male members.
The complaint alleges rape and murder by “unknown miscreants.”
State police have made a first arrest in the case, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh said on Twitter, without specifying the number of people who were apprehended.
“A thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment,” said Mr Singh.
“Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society.”
India‘s Supreme Court, meanwhile, expressed concern over the assault and asked the government to inform the court about the steps it has taken to catch those responsible.
“In a constitutional democracy, it is unacceptable. If the government does not act, we will,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday branded the assaults “shameful”.
“What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Mr Modi told reporters before a parliamentary session, as he made his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict following more than two months of public silence.
Without referring to the violence directly, he urged heads of state governments to ensure the safety of women and said the incident was “shameful for any civilised nation.”
“My heart is filled with pain and anger,” he said.
India’s main opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of “turning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”
Mr Kharge said Mr Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and rights activists.
“India will never forgive your silence,” he wrote on Twitter.
India’s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident “condemnable and downright inhuman.”
She said on Thursday that investigations were underway and that “no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.”
The ethnic violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur, where mobs rampaged through villages and torched houses, leaving more than 130 people dead since May.
The video has triggered outrage across India and has been widely shared on social media, despite the internet being largely blocked in remote Manipur state.
Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India’s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as “interference” in its internal affairs.
After the video of the assault came to light on Thursday, protests were held in New Delhi, against the deadly ethnic clashes.
The conflict in India’s northeast began in May, and was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand from the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.
