Imphal, March 23: Four of the 21 alleged rape victims of Manipur?s Churachandpur district have given ?graphic details? of how they were assaulted by militants recently in Tipaimukh sub-division.

The victims narrated their nightmare to a non-government fact-finding team, which visited the relief camp they are lodged in at Sakawrdai village in neighbouring Mizoram on March 7. The four victims are staying at the camp near the Manipur border along with more than 500 people displaced from Tipaimukh. The other rape victims are still in the sub-division.

Talking to mediapersons today, co-convenor of the team Babloo Loitongbam said the four alleged rape victims gave ?vivid details? of the sexual assault by militants to two women members of the team. One of the victims claimed to be pregnant, he added.

The victims, however, said they could not identify the culprits as they were either masked or had their faces blackened.

Three NGOs ? the Hmar Students? Association, the Rongmei Women?s Union and the Human Rights Alert, Manipur, with supported from the Naga Women?s Union, Manipur, ? had formed the Civil Society Fact Finding Team on Internally Displaced Persons to inquire about the allegations of mass rape and torture by militants in January.

Four members of the team left Imphal on March 5 to visit the Mizoram relief camp as well as Parbung, the sub-divisional headquarters of Tipaimukh in Churachandpur district, and the nearby Lungthulien village where the militants had allegedly assaulted the girls.

The team could not draw any conclusion on the allegations, but it was true that there were complaints of torture of 401 villagers and rape of 21 women by militants in Tipaimukh, Loitongbam said.

The Hmar Inpui, the apex body of the tribal community, had alleged that 21 women, including minors, were raped by militants of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) on January 16.

The chairman in-charge of Lungthulien village, Ralkaptwuom Hmar, had also lodged a complaint with the local police station at Parbung that UNLF and KCP militants had raped nine girls in his village. He has submitted the names of the victims to the fact-finding team.

The team is making the report even as a judicial inquiry headed by Justice S.P. Rajkhowa, a retired judge of Calcutta High Court, is under way. The commission has asked interested parties to submit their statements by April 3.

Joseph Hmar, a member of the fact-finding team and a Hmar student leader, said no decision had been taken on whether the Hmar community would extend its co-operation to the probe. If it did, it might demand shifting of the office of the probe panel to Parbung from Imphal, he added.

The United National Liberation Front today welcomed the NGO probe.

The outfit further stated that it would award capital punishment to any of its cadre found guilty of the charges.

The UNLF said in a statement today that the outfit and its ally, the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) would extend full co-operation during the inquiry.

The outfit, however, said there were inconsistencies in the number of rape victims.