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
