What is going on in the troubled Indian state of Manipur?

 Ethnic violence has plunged the tiny Indian state of Manipur into what many have described as a civil war between the state's two largest ethnic groups, the Mete majority and the Kukki minority, who vie for land and influence.

Shocking video emerged this week of an attack last May when two women from the Kuki minority were stripped naked by Miti men shortly after their village was destroyed, in the latest chapter in the use of terror against women in the region.

Where is Manipur located and who lives there?

The mountainous Indian state is located in the country's northeast, east of Bangladesh and adjacent to Myanmar and is home to an estimated 3.3 million people.

More than half of them are of the Mitte ethnicity, while about 43 percent are of the Kukye and Nagas minorities, which have a tribal character.

What's going on in it?

At least 130 people were killed and 400 injured in violence that began in May

 . More than 60,000 

 people have been forced from their homes as the army, paramilitary for

ces and police struggle to control the violence.

 What are the conflicting parties?

The Mitte, Koki and Naga militias have fought each other for decades because of conflict over land, national identity, and because of religious differences. All sides also clashed with Indian security forces.

But the current violent incidents are almost exclusively between Mity and Cookie.
"This time, the conflict is purely ethnic and there is no role for religion," says Deren Sadokp

am, editor of Frontier Manipur.

 Who are the dead and who are the cookies?

The majority of the Mitya originate from Manipur, Myanmar and their surrounding areas. The vast majority are Hindus religiously, although some of them follow the Sanamahi religion. The Koke people, who are mostly Christians, are spread across northeastern India, and many of those in Manipur also have their origins in Myanmar.

The Mete live in the Imphal Valley, while the Koki people live in the surrounding hills and beyond.

 Why are women attacked and humiliated?

The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi says the video is the latest example of rape and sexual assault being used as tools of violence in conflicts, which can often spiral into tit-for-tat attacks.

According to local media, the attack in May followed fake news of the rape of a Mitte woman by Koki militiamen. This has unleashed "a bloody new cycle of retaliatory violence against Kuki women at the hands of the Mitte mobs," says the local newspaper, The Print.

 What does the central government do?

 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules the restive state, remained silent about the violence in Manipur until a video of the two parading women stripping and gang-raping emerged this week. Modi described the incident as "the disgrace of India" and that he "will not spare any culprit... What happened with the daughters of Manipur is unforgivable".

But many Indians wonder why he has been silent for so long about what is going on in Manipur.

The Indian government has deployed 40,000 soldiers, paramilitaries and police to the state in an effort to stem the latest wave of violence. So far, the government has refused to heed calls from tribal leaders to impose direct rule on it.

But the violence continued to spread, forcing more villagers from their homes.

 Who rules Manipur?

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules India, runs the state government in Manipur, led by N Biren Singh, who belongs to the Mete ethnic group.

The Mitte also control 40 of the 60-seat regional parliament despite being 53 percent of the population. Koki's sons say that Singh's war on poppies, which is used to make heroin, only targets Koki's areas, while Singh's government has accused Koki Koki's militants of inciting the community against the government.