Three Women Raped by ARMY in Karbi Anglong

afspa1 — Joint Protest in Front of Assam Bhawan

On 6th April, an Army regiment entered a village in Karbi Anglong, and molested and injured many women. Around eight jawans carried off a 15 year old girl into the forest; when her mother and another woman rushed to rescue her, the jawans raped all three.

An ICDS worker who tried to intervene was also injured, and a three-year-old baby was hit with the butt of a rifle.

Karbi Anglong is one of the hill districts of Assam, the site of an agitation demanding autonomous statehood that has lasted several decades.

Although protests have been ongoing in Karbi Anglong ever since the rape, none of the jawans have been arrested. The reason is clear: the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act – AFSPA – offers the Army a shield of impunity, and a licence to rape and murder. The villagers have also been demanding – in vain – that the Army camp be removed from the area.

Instead, cover-up ploys are on. The Army representatives have claimed that ‘the rapist’ had committed suicide inside the Army camp!

This claim is extremely suspicious, and smacks of an attempt to distract and deflect the ongoing agitation.

afspa2 — Protest Meeting in front of Assam Bhawan

The entire regiment, after all, was involved in the attack on the village, and the three women were gang raped by at least eight men.

The protesters are seeking investigation and prosecution of the entire regiment and its commanding officer.

What proof is there that the man who died was indeed one of the rape-accused? The survivors have not yet been given any chance to identify the perpetrators.

Moreover, a suicide inside the Army camp should be treated as a suspicious death and must be probed to check for foul play.

The protesters in Karbi Anglong continue their agitation – they have said clearly that a suspicious ‘suicide’ inside the Army camp is not justice. Justice can only mean that an FIR of rape be lodged, and the rape investigated and prosecuted to punish all the perpetrators as well as the commanding officer who was in charge of the operation.

Moreover, justice can only mean the scrapping of the AFSPA – that time and again provides a protective shield to rapists in uniform.

Let us support the protests in Karbi Anglong.

Let us tell the Governments of Assam and the Centre, that we refuse to condone rape that is shielded in the name of ‘the nation’ – in our name. Remove the Shirld of AFSPA impunity! Let us demand to scrap the AFSPA!