NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke greater than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two ladies as they had been being paraded bare by a mob in Manipur state had been unforgivable.

A video displaying the assaults triggered huge outrage and was broadly shared on social media late Wednesday regardless of the web being largely blocked and journalists being locked out within the distant state. It reveals two bare ladies surrounded by scores of younger males who grope their genitals and drag them to a area.

“The guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi instructed reporters earlier than a parliamentary session as he made his first public feedback associated to the Manipur conflict.

Without referring to the violence instantly, Modi urged heads of state governments to make sure the protection of ladies and stated the incident was “shameful for any civilized nation.”

“My heart is filled with pain and anger,” he stated.

The ethnic violence depicted within the video was emblematic of the near-civil battle in Manipur, the place mobs rampaged via villages and torched homes, leaving greater than 130 folks lifeless since May.

The battle was sparked by an affirmative motion controversy wherein Christian Kukis protested a requirement from the largely Hindu Meiteis for a particular standing that may allow them to purchase land within the hills populated by Kukis and different tribal teams and get a share of presidency jobs.

The clashes have endured regardless of the military’s presence in Manipur, a state of three.7 million folks tucked within the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar that’s now divided in two ethnic zones. The warring factions have additionally shaped armed militias, and remoted villages are nonetheless raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 folks have fled to packed aid camps.

Police stated the assault on the 2 ladies occurred May 4, a day after the violence began within the state. According to a police grievance filed May 18, the 2 ladies had been a part of a household attacked by a mob that killed its two male members. The grievance alleges rape and homicide by “unknown miscreants.”

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The state police have made a first arrest in the case, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh said on Twitter, without specifying the number of people who were apprehended.

“A thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment. Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society,” Singh said.

India’s Supreme Court, meanwhile, expressed concern over the assault and asked the government to inform the court about the steps it has taken to catch those responsible.

“In a constitutional democracy, it is unacceptable. If the government does not act, we will,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said.

The victims are from the Kuki-Zo community, according to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur. One of them told The Associated Press that the men who assaulted the two women were part of a Meitei mob that had earlier torched their village.

“They forced us to remove our clothes and said we will be killed if we don’t do as told. Then they made us walk naked. They abused us. They touched us everywhere … on our breasts, our genitals,” she said over the phone from Manipur.

The woman said the duo was then led into a field where they were both sexually assaulted. The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.

India’s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident “condemnable and downright inhuman.” She stated Thursday that investigations had been underway and that “no effort might be spared to deliver perpetrators to justice.”

India’s essential opposition Congress occasion president Mallikarjun Kharge, nevertheless, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of “turning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”

Kharge said Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and rights activists.

“India will never forgive your silence,” he wrote on Twitter.

Last week, the European Parliament adopted a decision calling on Indian authorities to take motion to cease the violence in Manipur and defend spiritual minorities, particularly Christians. India’s international ministry condemned the decision, describing it as “interference” in its inner affairs.