Women and borders in militarised northeast India

Abstract

Thangjam Manorama was openly critical of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. On 11 July 2004 she was arrested and then allegedly raped, tortured and murdered by members of the counter-insurgency group Assam Rifles. The latter claimed Manorama was a People's Liberation Army sympathiser and was killed while trying to escape custody. Women's and civil liberties organisations, however, claimed her death was one more episode in the history of state-sanctioned violence against women in the border regions of northeast India.