In India's brutal ethnic war, women are participants as well as victims

FILE PHOTO: A Kuki woman prays inside a church at Kangvai village in Churachandpur district in the northeastern state of Manipur, India, July 23, 2023. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/file photo

MOIRANG/CHURACHANDPUR, India (Reuters) -In the sectarian violence that has ravaged India's Manipur state, women have been victims of brutal attacks. Residents and security officials say they are also at the forefront of the conflict, picking up arms, blocking troops and according to police complaints, instigating sexual assaults.

India's northeastern states have been historically prone to insurgencies and ethnic violence but the vicious conflict between majority Meiteis and minority tribal Kukis in Manipur hit world headlines last month when a video surfaced of two Kuki women being paraded naked through a jeering mob. In a police complaint reviewed by Reuters, one of the women said she was raped and her father and brother killed.