Miss Rose, a Tangkhul girl of Ngaprum Khullen village in Ukhrul district, was gang raped for hours in the house of Mr. R. Khasung in the night of 4 March 1974 by the officers of 95 Border Security Force. Rose committed suicide on 6 March 1974. She wrote a suicide note in Tangkhul language to her boyfriend. That suicide note was translated into Manipuri, and it was published at a publication of the Pan Manipur Youth League in 1993. The Manipuri version of the note was again translated into English by Ms. R.K. Smejita
“A Timeless Love letter” written by a Tangkhul Rape victim ( A publication of the Pan Manipur Youth League in 1993 – Translated to English ) Source: AFSPA 1958, CPDM 2010.
Most beloved…
In a world seeded with envy, our love shall never bloom together like those lovely flowers in the same stalk but we will bloom radiantly in that pure everlasting place of our true love. That I am leaving this world should not bereaved you to utter melancholy. A life driven by gale of sorrow and unrequited words mortify my soul and leave me to choose only this lone way. For the days to come, we made promises to be one and together in our lifelong journey. But oh! My love I could not make for that moment! Oh! My life none is there to receive your lot. What a pity! Oh! My vanquished soul every second bears the brunt of bereaved feelings, bringing me to the threshold of defeat. Even the tears which flow like an eternal spring now dries up. Those tears were the only image of my life. I will be remembering in those looming darkness of hell the tale of you and I. From dust to dust let this body embrace its birthplace; let the earth dissolves my remains. Oh! How enviable for that last glance, to see one last time of my image in your eyes, but alas! Fate deceives me at this last hour. I choose my own disgraceful death and lo! I will walk as an outcast forever. My love when you remembers me, turn your eyes to those darkest horizon for I reside forever in the abyss of darkness. There, you will find me treading all alone with a heavy sigh of regrets in that long darkness.
Love of my life! Feeling of sweet remembrance of those long hearty laughs and sharing each other woes fills my memory. At the dead of this night, far from here my love a deep slumber will be taking you to pleasant dreams. My last wish to see your visage shall ever remain unfulfilled as you are far from me… far across these ranges of hills.
For my lovely friends, though I am unable to write each a parting letter I plead to you to tell them my last farewell. In this early morning, I am glancing over the distance of your lovely place Bungpa. Remember, my love how I wish to shower all my feelings and love, all I have for you like a cascade flowing down in your ocean of love. Have you ever received the letter I sent to you on 6-2-73? What could have happened for not returning any reply from your side? I have waited long and I am still waiting, but at the moment life steals away stealthily. Why and how did we ever get parted will only be known after you escape from this world. Oh Hell! Oh! Abyss of Darkness! I loathe going that dark passage. No one shall ever know who betrays whom. The secret is entombed forever.
The life of a maiden dries up from blooming into a lovely flower and lays in the heathen… unadorned, unaccepted, untouched. Only regrets on my part for I am choke with words which I unable to tell you everything at this moment. What remains of the sad tale I will narrate to you closely in another lifetime, in another eternity. I will end with this note my love! That the only words that erupt from the truest, innermost part of me is the saddest part of our parting, the story of our failure to be together again.
Your Rose.
Epilogue:
Many Naga women have fallen prey in the hands of the Indian Armies. There are many undocumented cases of assaults, tortures, rapes and killing of innocent Naga women. *Here are some of the few documented cases:
- Mass rape committed by the Indian troops against women residents of Cheswezy village on 9 December 1970, where 18 girls and 9 married women were raped and 53 women molested.
- The animal passion of the Indian army personnel that fell upon the female population of Mao Songsong town and Shajaoba village women on 24 July 1971 left with several women raped and molested.
- In Ukhrul area, Ms. Rose of about 19 years from Kumram (Ngaprum) village committed suicide. She was gang-raped by two Indian paramilitary officers, namely, Dy. Comdt. Pundir and Asst. Comdt. Negi of the 95 Bn Border Security Force on 4 March 1974 in front of the helpless village elders who were kept at bay at gun point.
- The villagers brought Miss. Angai, a 24-year-old girl from Grihang village, in a near-dying condition. She had been tortured and gang-raped for three continuous days from 3-5 March 1974 by an armed group of the 95 Bn. Border Security Force personnel under the command of Dy. Comdt. Prakash. On the third day she was dragged to the school building where the other villagers had been rounded up. She was dragged by her hair to the classroom, kicked, beaten and stripped. Sticks were forced into her private parts causing profuse bleeding.
- Again on the evening of 6 March 1974 at about 18:00 hrs, Mrs. APao and Ms. AShin of Grihang village were taken away by two Indian soldiers under the order of Dy. Comdt. Dharam Prakash. They were taken a mile away from the village. One soldier took Mrs. APao into a jungle from the main road, forcibly removed all her garments at gun point, pulled her hair and, after beating severely, raped her. The other soldier took Ms. AShin and repeated the same beastly act.
- Two Indian army officers assaulted Ms. Luingamla of Ngainga village on 24 January 1986 and, when she resisted their beastly behavior, she was shot dead at point blank range.
*www.angelfire.com/mi/Nagalim/cont7.html
PLEASE SHARE THE POST.
Let us remember that justice is still due for our sisters who have been molested, tortured, raped and killed by the Indian Armies.
Any article to be authentic needs to have its facts correct. Propaganda to show someone in poor light, whom you do not like, does not stand to logic. Persons of 95 Bn BSF cannot be called the Indian Army as depicted in the above article. Moreover, there are innumerable cases where in Counter insurgency area women actively support the insurgents and are tacitly involved in the insurgency, hence when they get caught, the supporters give colour as they want it. The writer should be able to differentiate between paramilitary and military and not blame the army to every event.
Mr. Bulu how do you understand that women actively support the insurgentcy and in what way? And even if women involves, was that Raping those women and answers of counter insurgency policy? Was that killing those ladies, who resist Rape the True colour of Arms Forces?
Mr. Bulu please comment after knowing the facts. Thank you.
The pot calling the kettle black, Mr. Bulu. You wouldn’t call it propaganda had it showered words of praise on the rapists, would you? What logic does it stand to, to adjudge an article you don’t like as “propaganda”?
A rape by paramilitary is still a rape, won’t you agree? what relevant facts have you corrected from the article, which proved the accusation of rape to be propaganda?
The Naga indigenous people proudly put up a RESISTANCE MOVEMENT against India’s military (both military and paramilitary) aggression. They offer apologies to no one, let alone to you, Mr. Bulu, or to any Indian–dead or living.
The essence of your message is that your Indian women can be raped, over and over, because they support the Indian military and paramilitary. Did you really mean what you said?
In your desperate attempt to save the rapists, you insinuated the victim of “tacitly involved in the insurgency”. Of course, you neither offered any specific evidence in this specific case, nor any instance to backup your generalization. This goes to expose that yours is a hollow case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The Indo-Naga issue is a case of invasion/aggression by India. But you shamelessly called your Indian aggression as “Counter insurgency”. You’re just toying with words. Aggression is aggression. Not “Counter insurgency”. There’s a big difference between the two.
The Nagas took up arms to defend themselves only when, as B.N.Mullik put it in his book, “[Indian] troops moved into Tuensang [Nagaland] by October 1955, and the war [of invasion] with the Nagas started from then”.
When the Naga delegates pointed out that Assam Governor, Sir Akbar Hydari was threatening to use force against the Nagas in case they refused to join the Indian Union, Gandhi exclaimed: “Sir Akbar is wrong. He cannot do that…I will come to the Naga Hills; I will ask them to shoot me first before one Naga is shot at”. (Had Gandhi not been assassinated shortly after, Nagas are convinced he would have done just that). Gandhi went so far as to say, “Why wait until 14th August? Why not even declare your independence tomorrow?”
The Naga delegation came back assured by Gandhi’s assurance and declared their independence on 14th August 1947, one day prior to India’s own declaration of her independence. The sequence of events shows that the Nagas had done everything possible and required of them in declaring their independence.
______________
When the Naga delegates pointed out that Assam Governor, Sir Akbar Hydari was threatening to use force against the Nagas in case they refused to join the Indian Union, Gandhi exclaimed: “Sir Akbar is wrong. He cannot do that…I will come to the Naga Hills; I will ask them to shoot me first before one Naga is shot at”. (Had Gandhi not been assassinated shortly after, Nagas are convinced he would have done just that). Gandhi went so far as to say, “Why wait until 14th August? Why not even declare your independence tomorrow?”
The Naga delegation came back assured by Gandhi’s assurance and declared their independence on 14th August 1947, one day prior to India’s own declaration of her independence. The sequence of events shows that the Nagas had done everything possible and required of them in declaring their independence.
The Indo-Naga issue is a case of Invasion/aggression by India. It’s not a case of “Counter insurgency” (which you shamelessly try to portray as one), for the simple reason that there’s no insurgency against India, when the Indian military and paramilitary invaded the Naga indigenous areas.
The Nagas took up arms to defend themselves only when, as B.N. Mullik put it in his book, “[Indian] troops moved into Tuensang [Nagaland] by October 1955, and the war [of invasion] with the Nagas started from then”.
The essence of your message is that your Indian women can be raped, over and over, as there are innumerable cases where in Indian invasion of the Naga indigenous areas, Indian women actively support the Indian military and paramilitary and are tacitly involved in the invasion, hence when they get caught, they (Indian women) give colour as they want it. Did you really mean what you say?
Exactly what logic do your words stand to?
You shamelessly insinuated the rape victim of “tacitly involved in the insurgency” so as to make it possible for you to blame her, while absolving your Indian perpetrators of the heinous crime. Didn’t you?
Is a rape by the paramilitary a non-rape? BSF, or any paramilitary for that matter, is a constituent of the Indian army/military which invades the Naga inhabited areas. What facts exactly have you corrected from the article, as such that your corrected version legitimately nullifies/renders the rape as non-rape?
Yours is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Mr. Bulu.
You wouldn’t call the article a propaganda, had it lavished your Indian rapists with words of praise, would you?
If i f*** your mother and sister you will understand the pain in your asssh…. sala m&%^&*&d
The crux of the matter is about women being molested, raped and/or killed. Technicalities, no matter how strong, needs to be overlooked, as has also been specifically mentioned, that it is the personals of 95 Battalion of BSF. Para military, military, armed police or unarmed police, they are not a serious matter of issue than the issue of the Government of India advocating and or defending such actions. As has also been rightly said “a mistake which is repeatedly committed is a decision”. the fact remains that all Army personals are not saints. insurgents may make propaganda but people need to realise that some Army/Para-military are using the name of insurgents propaganda as Camouflage for their crime (inhuman).
one need only look at the supreme court cases (India) where rape and murder by the army/paramilitary has been confirmed including fake incounters. Imagine how many evaded conviction with serious flaws in our legal (judiciary) system. One need to understand that It’s the pain and suffering which is still overflowing. AND it will take time to heal.
The Indian Government have to reply for this heinious crime and emmidiately booked those concern persons under the Law, either those monster are still alive or death. Justice should be brought sooner as we have the clear cut evidence:Who the person, which Arms forces, and Which Battalions? numerous incident took place and crueltiness, fake in counter, killings of innocents people. Had the Media played an effective role or willing to contributes, then a True colour of what Arms forces had done to the People of north east after Independence will be a WIKI Leaked of Indian policy towards minority.
Using sexual harassment as a tool of war is unacceptable. Some of above mentioned incidents may have occurred in past when India itself was in shock, paranoia, and fear after the Chinese invasion in 1962. There were intels of Chinese agencies fuelling the secessionist movement not only in Nagaland but in entire north-east. There was a time when Indians used to have grudge against north-eastern people because of a clear trust deficit. But now time has changed. India is transforming into multi-ethnic , multi-racial society with progressive attitude and acceptance for people of all color and creed. Naga people are no exception to this collective transformation of India. And again……Army and paramilitary are different. Paramilitaries are known for their “Police-like” attitude. They commit such atrocities even in main-land India. But Indian Army’s record is clear and stain-less.
Mr. Bulu you have no affection for what had happened to us in the war era’s. None of the Nagas had forgotten the torture meted out of its people by the Indian Security force. Nothing will ever justify our pain and suffering we endure during 60s-80s. We have all the proof of the attrocities commited by the armed force. If u need any authentication of the documents, come to our land and make a survey. Every living Nagas will tell you the same story.
Those paramilitary who involved in the said rap case (95 batalion BSF) should be torture first and be put to death.
Hi everyone!,, Mr bulu koboloi mangia tu hoise Bsf khan rape korise army khan nahoi Bsf alak department laga ase Bsf khan Indian Armed Forces nahoi de Tai khan to paramilitary department ase aru Bsf ke Indian army logote compared koribo nalage Bsf alaak Indian army alak