Nagaland’s capital Kohima on Tuesday witnessed a massive protest over an incident where a 60-year old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a group of men in the heart of the city about a week ago. Over 10,000 people took part in the protest.

The protesters, who included men and women from different communities as well as school and college students, braved heavy showers and marched through the main roads of the city and submitted a memorandum to chief minister TR Zeliang, asking him to take steps so that the alleged culprit did not come out on bail.

According to earlier reports, the woman was getting ready to go home after completing work in a paddy field when a group of five men first tried to rape her and then assaulted her when she protested. All five persons have been arrested.

The memorandum also asked the government to take steps so that women feel safe and that no person committing such crimes against women could escape. The protesters, who carried placards and raised slogans like “Rapist, we curse you”, “Zero tolerance for rapist” and “Rapist no better than beast”, also demanded installation of CCTV cameras in various places where women and children were more vulnerable to such crimes.

The protesters later assembled at Khuochiezie, where several community leaders emphasized on the government taking more vigilant steps and discouraged people taking law into their hands. Kohima Village Council advisor Pheluopfhelie Kesiezie, who presided over the meeting, said that the rally was organised not only to show anger and sorrow but to also stand in solidarity so that such evil may never happen again in the land.

It was only in March that an angry mob had barged into the Dimapur Central Jail, about 70 kms from Kohima, dragged out a rape-accused person, lynched him and hanged his body in the Clock Tower. While that incident had hit headlines across the country, a judicial inquiry is still on to find out the truth as also to fix responsibility especially in the mob entering the prison and dragging out the accused.

Nagaland incidentally ranks the lowest among all states in the number of incidents of rapes, with the 2014 ‘Crimes in India’ report prepared by the National Crimes Record Bureau putting the figure at only 30 last year. The report had said that the country had recorded 37,413 rape cases in 2014.

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