Khoupum rape victims speak up
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 17 2012: The four school going girls who were allegedly raped by two defected cadres of Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) on October 5 in Khoupum village have blamed non-deployment of security forces in the village by the state government for the cause of the inhuman act on them.

Recounting the gory details of their ordeals to media persons at an undisclosed place in Imphal today, the four rape victims said that they are students of Don Bosco School at Daithaolong village under Khoupum sub-division reading in class VI, VII, VIII and X respectively.

On that fateful day, they were returning from school when they heard gun shots.

At first, they thought the gun shots may be coming from some local hunters.

But as the intensity of the gun shots increased, they realized that it was indeed a gun battle between two parties and rushed inside a nearby house to save themselves.

When the gun shots ceased after about 10 minutes, they came out of the house and found the two defected ZUF cadres.

As soon as the two cadres saw them they started firing on the ground near their feet so that they cannot run away.

Then, the two cadres immediately got hold of them on gunpoint and dragged them inside the quarter of the Chowkidar of IFCD after breaking the door open.

Once inside, two of them were locked up inside the toilet.

Later, one of the armed cadres dragged one girl from the remaining two to the bedroom and raped her.

At the same time, the other cadre took the other girl to the common room and violated her chastity.

After raping the two girls, the two cadres again pulled out the other girls, who were locked inside the toilet, and committed the same heinous crimes on them as well.

Later one of the cadres took one of the girls to the common room at gunpoint.

There, the armed cadre put the trigger on his head with the girl strangled closed to him saying that they will die together.

The armed cadre immediately shot himself dead at the spot.

However, the girl managed to dug down and escape the bullet from hitting her.

Seeing that, the other cadre immediately rushed out from the quarter.

The four rape victims expressed their desire for awarding death penalty to the remaining culprit and urged the state government to provide necessary security forces in Khoupum village so that such incidents do not reoccur.

A mother of one of the rape victims said that there is news of the remaining armed cadre being kept in the custody of State Police and demanded that the accused should be handed over to the villagers of Khoupum.

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