India, Jan. 26 -- The 18-year-old* was a vivacious, fun-loving teenager who had given up studies to work at a beauty salon to support her family.

Ethnic conflict between the majority Meiteis and the minority Kuki Zos in Manipur had broken out early in May 2023. On May 15, she was withdrawing cash from an ATM near her home in Imphal when four men in a Maruti Swift, abducted her and took her to a group of meira paibis, the legendary Manipuri torch-bearers. Dressed in traditional phanek, the women first beat her up and then handed her over to men from the armed militia group, Arambai Tenggol with instructions to kill her, her police complaint states.

As with most ethnic conflicts from Sudan to Bosnia; the Partition of India to Gujarat, wom...