Alleged rapist paraded naked, killed in Nagaland... 1 dies in police firing on mob that lynched rape accused, security increased in Muslim areas
DNA, 6 March 2015: After an angry student mob managed to break out alleged rapist Syed Farid Khan from Dimapur Central jail in Nagaland and lynched him to death, Dimapur Director General of Police has said to a news channel that several arrests have been made based on the video footage.
He added that the police is trying to identify attackers.
He also said that the police did not use force as the mob consisted of students.
Chief Minister TR Zeliang said to a news channel that a committee will probe to if there was security lapse, says Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang. Brushing off certain media reports that said that Khan was handed over to the rampaging crowd by the security forces, Zeilang said that the mob managed to overpower the them.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed concern over the incident.
According to an HT report, a 25 year-old protestor Initu died on Thursday night after succumbing to bullet injuries. Initu was shot twice in his chest. Four others are said to be seriously injured with one of them still in the ICU, the report added.
Politicians react to the incident:
Congress' Sandip Dikshit has said to ANI that he condemned what happened in Dimapur, this was not how justice should be delivered.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar on Friday termed as extremely unfortunate the incident in Nagaland where a crowd broke into a jail in Dimapur district and lynched a man accused of raping a girl, and called for speedy justice in such cases.
"Whatever took place is not correct. There is Constitution and law in our country. The police and the administration is there to ensure that such incidents that violate the law do not take. If everybody takes the law into their hands then there will be no law and order situation in the country, there will be anarchy. So, this is not correct," Anwar said. Here is what some of the activists have had to say about the incident
Northeastern activist Binalakshmi Nepram has condemned the incident implying that justice should have been allowed to take its course.
There is a justice system tat allows trial, we condemn what happened: Binalakshmi Nepram (NE Activist) on Dimapur incident.
While others have blamed the incident on government inaction on rapes.
How the situation unfolded on Thursday afternoon:
A man, accused of raping a woman, was dragged out of central jail in Nagaland's Dimapur town and lynched by a mob on Thursday. A mass protest rally against the rape was held at Dimapur on Thursday morning after which students and angry people forced into the district jail and managed to pull out the accused.
Syed Farid Khan, 35, had allegedly raped a Naga woman on February 23 and 24. He was arrested on February 25 and was sent to judicial custody by a lower court, say report. Protests against the rape had begun on Wednesday and the agitators demanded that Khan be handed over to them. The protest snowballed into a violent agitation on Thursday which ultimately resulted in lynching of Khan, say reports. Conflicting reports have appeared on Khan's identity, some say he was a migrant from Assam who worked as a used car dealer, others have said that he was an undocumented Bangladeshi immigrant. The region has been witnessing some protest over the issue of illegal immigrants.
On Thursday evening, a mob stormed into the central jail in Dimapur, dragged Khan and lynched him in public. From the Dimapur Municipal Council, the protestors stripped and pulled Khan while marching towards the jail. They had planned to take him to the Clock Tower where a public hanging had been planned. But Khan succumbed to the injuries on the way, even before being taken to the hospital.
The mob tied his body to a vehicle and dragged it to the Clock Tower.
The protestors mostly belonging organisations led by the Naga Students’ Federation also went upto the Dimapur Municipal Council office and demanded cancellation of trade licences to Bengali speaking Muslims. According to an HT report, some Muslim migrants' homes and shops were attacked. Indian Reserve Battalion and paramilitary personnel in Dimapur and adjoining areas were deployed by district authorities against possible backlash against the community.
Administration's response after the incident:
An emergency cabinet meeting was held at 7 pm at the residential office of chief minister to take stock of the law and other situation in Dimapur. The cabinet condemned the violent incident whereby the mob took the law into their hands, leading to the death of the accused, said a release issued by CMO Media Cell this evening.
The cabinet also decided to institute a high-level committee to inquire into the incident and find out the circumstances leading to it. The committee would also inquire into the lapses or shortcomings on the part of any public servant in connection with the incident and the person or group of persons responsible for the violence leading to the death of the accused in the hands of the mob.
The chief minister, being in New Delhi, the cabinet meeting was chaired by Minister for Social Security & Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs, Kiyanilie Peseyie, the CMO Media Cell added.
Situation went out of hand when the mob vandalised shops belonging to non-locals. The police opened fire to disperse the mob and in that about 20 persons were injured. The mob pelted stones and torched police vehicles in retaliation.
The police suspect that some prisoners might have escaped during the public raid in the central jail.
Region tense since past two weeks over illegal immigrations:
According to reports, the region has been tense over the issue of illegal immigration for the last two weeks.
There are unconfirmed reports that the Muslim migrant families who were mostly employed as farm and construction labourers are heading to Assam fearing for safety.
Henlly/Temshi, eastern mirror, DIMAPUR, MARCH 5: Dimapur saw another stormy day on Thursday with two deaths in mob fury. Farid Khan, 35 years, who was accused of raping a local girl was pulled out from the heavily fortified central jail in Dimapur and lynched by the furious mob.
Several thousands of people stormed into the central jail located at 4th Mile, Dimapur at around 3 pm after over powering the state forces manning the jail. The mob pulled out the accused, stripped him before he was dragged after tying him by the waist for about seven kilometers. By the time they reached Dimapur’s landmark City Tower at around 5 pm he was already dead.
At the Central Jail the people mostly students attempted to search for the accused but the security force personnel foiled this move of the mob. The security force personnel resorted to blank firing and shelling of tear gas to control the infuriated students. Dimapur deputy commissioner along with his officials and Dimapur superintendent of police visiting the Central Jail tried to pacify and convince the students but to no avail.
Minutes later the mob managed to find the rape accused in the jail. They took him out and stripped him, tied him by the waist and dragged along the national highway towards the town. As the angry people dragged him they also kicked and thrashed him. Farid Khan died before reaching City Tower. But his lifeless body was continued to be dragged till City Tower.
At that moment the security force personnel in large number rushed towards the spot and seized the dead body of Farid Khan. There, the mob and the security force personnel engaged in fierce confrontations. The security personnel resorted to tear gas shelling and blank firing. The mob returned with heavy stone pelting. In the melee five persons got injured.
Earlier in the morning, defying the 144 CrPC promulgated by the administration since the previous evening, a rally was held under the aegis of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) at City Tower.
The second day rally was participated by thousands of students and members of civil society organizations. The rally witnessed thousands of people with college students in their uniforms, mwomen folk in their traditional attires and senior citizens.
Representatives from various colleges and organizations spoke during the rally which was followed by a protest march towards the DMC office for submitting the memorandum demanded by the protestors.
After a short interaction with the DMC officials the mob marched towards the Central Jail.
It is worth noting that with the rape-accused also alleged to be a Bangladeshi, the incident also triggered anger against alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators. The state is already facing agitations for the past two weeks demanding detection and ouster of suspected Bangladeshi infiltrators. It can be noted here that the district administration had imposed curfew in the town on Wednesday after a group of people took out a protest rally against the rape.
However, that failed to deter the people from marching to the central jail.
Police fired in the air to deter the mob, but the mob tore down the gate, dragged the accused to the tower and beat him up severely, that ultimately led to his death.
Police, who were outnumbered by the ever-swelling mob, again fired blanks to disperse the crowd and also to retrieve the body. This infuriated the mob and they pelted stones and burnt down the vehicles.
Over ten vehicles including a police bus was torched by the angry mob in the heart of the town during the mob-security force confrontation. Inito, 25 years, s/o Shiviha, presently residing at 4th Mile, Dimapur succumbed to his injuries at Nikos Hospital at 7:20 pm, according to a doctor. He was rushed to the hospital at 7:5 pm with two bullet injuries—one in left chest and the other in right chest.
So far four people who sustained bullet injuries have been identified. They are Olivito, 18 years, Parul, John Patton, 30 years and Khukavi, 31 years. All of them are being treat at Nikos Hospital. Reports said scores of people are being also treated at Civil Hospitals. One of the injured is at ICU in Zion Hospital, reports said.
HT, Guwahati: Police firing on a mob that lynched an alleged rapist in Nagaland’s Dimapur town after storming a jail and dragging him out, has claimed the life of a 25-year-old protester.
Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports of migrant Muslims leaving or trying to leave Dimapur for relative safety in Assam. Engaged mostly as farm labourers or construction workers, the migrants have periodically been targeted during anti-migrant violence in Nagaland.
IANS | Dimapur (Nagaland), 06 March, 2015: An alleged rapist, suspected to be an illegal Bangladeshi migrant, was dragged out of the high-security central jail in Nagaland's commercial town of Dimapur by an irate mob, paraded naked and then thrashed to death on Thursday, officials said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed concern over the incident.
According to an HT report, a 25 year-old protestor Initu died on Thursday night after succumbing to bullet injuries. Initu was shot twice in his chest. Four others are said to be seriously injured with one of them still in the ICU, the report added.
Politicians react to the incident:
Congress' Sandip Dikshit has said to ANI that he condemned what happened in Dimapur, this was not how justice should be delivered.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar on Friday termed as extremely unfortunate the incident in Nagaland where a crowd broke into a jail in Dimapur district and lynched a man accused of raping a girl, and called for speedy justice in such cases.
"Whatever took place is not correct. There is Constitution and law in our country. The police and the administration is there to ensure that such incidents that violate the law do not take. If everybody takes the law into their hands then there will be no law and order situation in the country, there will be anarchy. So, this is not correct," Anwar said. Here is what some of the activists have had to say about the incident
Northeastern activist Binalakshmi Nepram has condemned the incident implying that justice should have been allowed to take its course.
There is a justice system tat allows trial, we condemn what happened: Binalakshmi Nepram (NE Activist) on Dimapur incident.
While others have blamed the incident on government inaction on rapes.
How the situation unfolded on Thursday afternoon:
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| Representational Image (Getty Images) |
Syed Farid Khan, 35, had allegedly raped a Naga woman on February 23 and 24. He was arrested on February 25 and was sent to judicial custody by a lower court, say report. Protests against the rape had begun on Wednesday and the agitators demanded that Khan be handed over to them. The protest snowballed into a violent agitation on Thursday which ultimately resulted in lynching of Khan, say reports. Conflicting reports have appeared on Khan's identity, some say he was a migrant from Assam who worked as a used car dealer, others have said that he was an undocumented Bangladeshi immigrant. The region has been witnessing some protest over the issue of illegal immigrants.
On Thursday evening, a mob stormed into the central jail in Dimapur, dragged Khan and lynched him in public. From the Dimapur Municipal Council, the protestors stripped and pulled Khan while marching towards the jail. They had planned to take him to the Clock Tower where a public hanging had been planned. But Khan succumbed to the injuries on the way, even before being taken to the hospital.
The mob tied his body to a vehicle and dragged it to the Clock Tower.
The protestors mostly belonging organisations led by the Naga Students’ Federation also went upto the Dimapur Municipal Council office and demanded cancellation of trade licences to Bengali speaking Muslims. According to an HT report, some Muslim migrants' homes and shops were attacked. Indian Reserve Battalion and paramilitary personnel in Dimapur and adjoining areas were deployed by district authorities against possible backlash against the community.
Administration's response after the incident:
An emergency cabinet meeting was held at 7 pm at the residential office of chief minister to take stock of the law and other situation in Dimapur. The cabinet condemned the violent incident whereby the mob took the law into their hands, leading to the death of the accused, said a release issued by CMO Media Cell this evening.
The cabinet also decided to institute a high-level committee to inquire into the incident and find out the circumstances leading to it. The committee would also inquire into the lapses or shortcomings on the part of any public servant in connection with the incident and the person or group of persons responsible for the violence leading to the death of the accused in the hands of the mob.
The chief minister, being in New Delhi, the cabinet meeting was chaired by Minister for Social Security & Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs, Kiyanilie Peseyie, the CMO Media Cell added.
Situation went out of hand when the mob vandalised shops belonging to non-locals. The police opened fire to disperse the mob and in that about 20 persons were injured. The mob pelted stones and torched police vehicles in retaliation.
The police suspect that some prisoners might have escaped during the public raid in the central jail.
Region tense since past two weeks over illegal immigrations:
According to reports, the region has been tense over the issue of illegal immigration for the last two weeks.
There are unconfirmed reports that the Muslim migrant families who were mostly employed as farm and construction labourers are heading to Assam fearing for safety.
Henlly/Temshi, eastern mirror, DIMAPUR, MARCH 5: Dimapur saw another stormy day on Thursday with two deaths in mob fury. Farid Khan, 35 years, who was accused of raping a local girl was pulled out from the heavily fortified central jail in Dimapur and lynched by the furious mob.
Several thousands of people stormed into the central jail located at 4th Mile, Dimapur at around 3 pm after over powering the state forces manning the jail. The mob pulled out the accused, stripped him before he was dragged after tying him by the waist for about seven kilometers. By the time they reached Dimapur’s landmark City Tower at around 5 pm he was already dead.
At the Central Jail the people mostly students attempted to search for the accused but the security force personnel foiled this move of the mob. The security force personnel resorted to blank firing and shelling of tear gas to control the infuriated students. Dimapur deputy commissioner along with his officials and Dimapur superintendent of police visiting the Central Jail tried to pacify and convince the students but to no avail.
Minutes later the mob managed to find the rape accused in the jail. They took him out and stripped him, tied him by the waist and dragged along the national highway towards the town. As the angry people dragged him they also kicked and thrashed him. Farid Khan died before reaching City Tower. But his lifeless body was continued to be dragged till City Tower.
At that moment the security force personnel in large number rushed towards the spot and seized the dead body of Farid Khan. There, the mob and the security force personnel engaged in fierce confrontations. The security personnel resorted to tear gas shelling and blank firing. The mob returned with heavy stone pelting. In the melee five persons got injured.
Earlier in the morning, defying the 144 CrPC promulgated by the administration since the previous evening, a rally was held under the aegis of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) at City Tower.
The second day rally was participated by thousands of students and members of civil society organizations. The rally witnessed thousands of people with college students in their uniforms, mwomen folk in their traditional attires and senior citizens.
Representatives from various colleges and organizations spoke during the rally which was followed by a protest march towards the DMC office for submitting the memorandum demanded by the protestors.
After a short interaction with the DMC officials the mob marched towards the Central Jail.
It is worth noting that with the rape-accused also alleged to be a Bangladeshi, the incident also triggered anger against alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators. The state is already facing agitations for the past two weeks demanding detection and ouster of suspected Bangladeshi infiltrators. It can be noted here that the district administration had imposed curfew in the town on Wednesday after a group of people took out a protest rally against the rape.
However, that failed to deter the people from marching to the central jail.
Police fired in the air to deter the mob, but the mob tore down the gate, dragged the accused to the tower and beat him up severely, that ultimately led to his death.
Police, who were outnumbered by the ever-swelling mob, again fired blanks to disperse the crowd and also to retrieve the body. This infuriated the mob and they pelted stones and burnt down the vehicles.
Over ten vehicles including a police bus was torched by the angry mob in the heart of the town during the mob-security force confrontation. Inito, 25 years, s/o Shiviha, presently residing at 4th Mile, Dimapur succumbed to his injuries at Nikos Hospital at 7:20 pm, according to a doctor. He was rushed to the hospital at 7:5 pm with two bullet injuries—one in left chest and the other in right chest.
So far four people who sustained bullet injuries have been identified. They are Olivito, 18 years, Parul, John Patton, 30 years and Khukavi, 31 years. All of them are being treat at Nikos Hospital. Reports said scores of people are being also treated at Civil Hospitals. One of the injured is at ICU in Zion Hospital, reports said.
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| Security personnel at the site after the mob dragged out the rape accused out of Dimapur district jail and lynched in Dimapur, Nagaland on Thursday. (source: PTI) |
HT, Guwahati: Police firing on a mob that lynched an alleged rapist in Nagaland’s Dimapur town after storming a jail and dragging him out, has claimed the life of a 25-year-old protester.
Doctors at a private hospital in Dimapur said Inito, who took two bullets to his chest, died Thursday night. Four others, one of them in ICU, are in serious condition.
Apprehending more protests following Inito’s death – and a backlash against migrant Muslims, some of whose houses and shops were destroyed on Thursday – the district authorities deployed Indian Reserve Battalion and paramilitary personnel in Dimapur and adjoining areas.
The authorities are also wary of militants, in designated camps following a prolonged ceasefire, trying to take advantage of the situation.
“There has been no incident but the situation is tense,” Dimapur deputy commissioner Wezope Kenye said, adding curfew imposed in the town would continue until normalcy returns.
Thousands of protesters had surrounded the offices of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police on Wednesday, demanding that the alleged rapist named Syed Farid Khan, 35, be handed over to them.
The parents of a Naga girl had on February 23 lodged a complaint against Khan, a dealer of scrap and used cars, saying he had raped her several times that day. A migrant Muslim from Assam suspected to be a Bangladeshi national, Khan was subsequently sent to the central jail in Dimapur.
The protests continued on Thursday with members of several organisations led by Naga Students’ Federation marching to the Dimapur Municipal Council office, seeking cancellation of trade license to all Bengali-speaking Muslims.
As talks between the district authorities and the protesters failed, some 90,000 people marched to the fortress-like jail, broke open two large gates and dragged Khan out. They stripped and thrashed him while pushing him to the town’s landmark Clock Tower 7km away where a ‘public hanging’ had been planned.
Khan succumbed to his injuries half way to the lynching spot. But such was the anger that the protesters tied his limp body to a motorcycle and dragged it to the Clock Tower.
The police, outnumbered, kept a distance while Khan was being dragged, but arrived after his body was strung on the Clock Tower fencing for display. They fired blanks to disperse the protesters who retaliated by pelting stones and torched more than 10 police vehicles.
The Nagaland cabinet, chaired by social security and welfare minister Kiyalinie Peseyie in the absence of chief minister TR Zeliang who is in Delhi, met Thursday night to condemn the killing of the rape accused. It appealed to the people of Nagaland to allow the “due process of law to take its own course and not to indulge in violence or vandalism”.
The cabinet also decided to institute a high level inquiry committee into the incident to find out if there was any lapse or shortcoming on the part of any public servants in connection with the incident, and the persons or group responsible for the violence leading to the death of the accused.
Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports of migrant Muslims leaving or trying to leave Dimapur for relative safety in Assam. Engaged mostly as farm labourers or construction workers, the migrants have periodically been targeted during anti-migrant violence in Nagaland.
A prime accusation against the migrants is that they entice Naga girls and marry them for tribal status. A new Naga ‘tribe’ called Sumiya – born out of legitimate marriages between Sema or Sumi (Naga tribe) and Bengali-speaking Muslim men called Miyas – was formed in the 1990s prompting the Naga Students’ Federation to launch a movement for detecting and deporting "foreigners". One of the popular slogans used that time was ‘Nagas are Nagas by birth, not by adoption.”
The movement was short-lived because of Naga militants who reportedly depended on Bangladesh for smuggled arms and money laundering.
IANS | Dimapur (Nagaland), 06 March, 2015: An alleged rapist, suspected to be an illegal Bangladeshi migrant, was dragged out of the high-security central jail in Nagaland's commercial town of Dimapur by an irate mob, paraded naked and then thrashed to death on Thursday, officials said.
At least 10 vehicles were also set ablaze by the unruly mob forcing the authorities to clamp curfew in Dimapur district.
Syed Farid Khan, a 35-year-old second hand car dealer, had allegedly raped a 20-year-old Naga woman on February 23 and 24 at different locations. Police arrested Khan on February 25 and later a lower court sent him to judicial custody.
"A mob of around 4,000 people stormed the central jail after breaking the two gates and took the accused out of jail and paraded him naked to the city tower in the heart of Dimapur town, before we could rescue him from the mob," district police chief Meren Jamir told IANS.
He said Khan died after he was badly thrashed by the mob.
Meanwhile, sources said the accused hailed from Assam's Karimganj district and was involved in other rape cases earlier.
"The body was retrieved from the mob after police fired in the air to disperse them," Jamir said.
"We have clamped curfew in Dimapur district to contain the law and order situation following the unfortunate incident," district magistrate Wezope Kenye told IANS.
He said the district authorities had made all efforts to prevent the mob from storming the central jail.
"We resorted to firing blanks and tear gas shells to disperse the mob but they managed to pull out Khan from the jail," Kenye said.
"The situation is tense and we are making all efforts to restore normalcy in the district," he added.
Many people were injured when police fired to disperse the mob.
The irate mob also lobbed stones at police, set afire several police vehicles besides destroying public property.
"The problem started today (Thursday) morning when people in huge numbers gathered at the Clock Tower to demand exemplary punishment to Farid Khan," said a Dimapur district administration official.
The district administration had imposed curfew in the town on Wednesday after a group of people took out a protest rally against the rape.
However, that failed to deter the people from marching to the central jail.
Police fired in the air to deter the mob, but the mob tore down the gate, dragged the accused to the tower and beat him up severely, that ultimately led to his death.
Police, who were outnumbered by the ever-swelling mob, again fired blanks to disperse the crowd and also to retrieve the body. This infuriated the mob and they pelted stones and burnt down the vehicles.
The incident has created panic among the people, particularly among the trader community, as the protesters demanded the administration to cancel trade licenses of all non-local businessmen in the town.
What Sayed Farid did was wrong and unacceptable but it is also wrong for the public to take the law in their hands. Big lapse and questionable security that should have been provided by the jail authorities.
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