Furious Indian women burn down houses of two suspects after naked parade video

Four men have been arrested for allegedly making two women walk naked down a street while being jeered at and harassed by a mob, amid ethnic clashes in Manipur

PM Modi says the incident ‘shamed India’, and authorities have vowed to take ‘strict action’ against all perpetrators, including possible capital punishment

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Women on Thursday set fire to the home of one of the men accused of parading two women naked in front of a mob in India’s Manipur state. Photo: AFPTV via AFP

Published: 6:46pm, 21 Jul 2023Updated: 1:10am, 22 Jul 2023

Furious women set fire to the houses of two Indian men accused of parading two women naked in a state where months of ethnic clashes have left at least 120 dead, images showed Friday.

A clip went viral on Wednesday showing two women reported to be from the Kuki tribal group walking naked along a street while being jeered at and harassed by a mob reportedly from the Meitei community.

Violence erupted in the northeastern state of Manipur between the mainly Christian Kuki and the predominantly Hindu Meitei in May over job quotas and land rights, and intermittent clashes have continued since.

The emergence of footage of the women’s humiliation – which happened in May – triggered outrage across the country, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it had “shamed India”.

Police arrested four suspects on Thursday, and the same day a group of women activists threw stacks of hay into the house of one of the men in Imphal and set it on fire.