(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Police said yesterday they have charged 42 people after the killing and lynching of a rape suspect who was dragged from his prison cell, with more arrests overnight.
The Nagaland police have charged the men with rioting, arson and unlawful assembly over the attack by a frenzied mob on Syed Farid Khan, widely condemned as a barbaric act of vigilante justice.
Thousands of people stormed the Dimapur Central Prison on Thursday to snatch Khan, stripping him naked and beating him to death with sticks in the streets before stringing him up to a clock tower.
"Some of these 42 arrested men were also directly involved in the lynching of the rape suspect Khan, and will face additional charges," Inspector General of Police Wabang Jamir said in Dimapur, after 18 were arrested on Sunday in an initial sweep.
Tensions had been rising in Dimapur ahead of the incident after Bengali-speaking Khan was arrested on February 24 for allegedly raping a 19-year-old tribal woman multiple times.
Eighteen people were arrested on Sunday over the attack in the northeastern town where hundreds of riot police have been patrolling the streets in case of further trouble.
The lynching comes as India is in the midst of a raging controversy over a government order to ban the broadcast of a documentary about the December 2012 fatal gang-rape of a young student in New Delhi.
India has seen an outpouring of anger over frightening levels of violence
against women since the 2012 attack, which sparked shock both within India and around the world.
But the lynching is also linked to ethnic tensions in Nagaland, whose indigenous tribal groups have for years accused growing numbers of Muslim migrants from neighbouring Assam state and Bangladesh of settling on their land and eating into resources.
The mob overpowered security at the prison searching for Khan, whom Nagaland's government initially said was a Bangladeshi immigrant but was actually a native of Assam.
Jamir said the city was "slowly returning back to normal" with police lifting a curfew, but Internet and mobile restrictions would remain for another 48 hours.
"Complete curfew orders have been relaxed today but some prohibitory orders still continue," Jamir said.
The Assam assembly meanwhile witnessed noisy scenes over the
incident.
The problem started after some opposition members raised concerns over
former Assam minister and Congress legislator Siddeque Ahmed's statement that he had prior information that the mob would break into the jail in Dimapur and kill the rape accused and that he had informed Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi about it on the morning of March 5.
However, the chief minister negated the possibility of such an incident and ignored the matter, Ahmed had alleged.
The former minister, who was dropped from the Gogoi cabinet last year for anti-party activities, also alleged that the victim could have been saved had the chief minister taken up the matter with the neighbouring state.
The opposition demanded a clarification from the government over the statement of Ahmed.
lA 21-year-old student from Assam was allegedly beaten up by some residents of south Delhi's Amar Colony, police said yesterday.
According to the police, the student was identified as Arbazuddin Ahmed. He was trying to break the lock of someone else's house, mistaking it to be his own, apparently in an inebriated state.
Police said the student hails from Guwahati in Assam and was living in Delhi for the last two years. He has suffered fractures in his limbs and jaw.
"The incident took place on March 5 when Arbazuddin came back and tried to open the lock of a house which was not his. When the key didn't work, he tried to break the door and get in," a senior police official said.
"Meanwhile, hearing the noise, the owner of the house and neighbours woke up. Thinking that he was a thief, they thrashed him," he said.
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