[A few points demand being flagged, rather prominently. One, the charge of "rape" was just that - only a "charge". Two, the hapless victim of this ghastly crime was no Bangladeshi, by the furthest stretch. Three, even a proven rapist does not deserve to be battered and hanged to death by a lynch mob right on the streets. Even if he happens to be a Bangladeshi or whatever. Four, the local media played a major role in whipping up murderous racist passions. Five, things started hotting up since last Tuesday and came to a head on Wednesday - well before the airing of the BBC movie, 'India's Daughter', that too outside India. Six, even last year there was a case of similar lynching at a place 280 kms. from Dimapur, and Bengali speaking Muslims have reportedly started moving out of Nagaland.
Kavita Krishnan's tweet: "Rapist Lynched After BBC Rape Documentary Aired @sarahdevin http://voc.tv/1w87moo This is wht we fought 2 resist 1/n" (look up: <https://twitter.com/kavita_krishnan>), given the above context, has got to be considered a highly unfortunate attempt to deliberately mislead and manipulate public opinions.] I/II. http://www.firstpost.com/india/new-facts-in-dimapur-lynching-khan-from-military-family-not-bangladeshi-illegal-2141941.html New facts in Dimapur lynching: Khan from military family, not 'Bangladeshi illegal' by FP Staff Mar 8, 2015 09:57 IST Syed Sharif Khan was dragged out of a Dimapur prison, paraded naked and then beaten and stoned and killed by a mob which believed he was an 'Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrant' who raped a Naga college student. However, it now turns out that not only was ***Khan an Indian but he hailed from a family of army men and had moved to Nagaland from Assam after marrying a Naga woman*** [emphasis added]. "We are sons of the soil. We can't be Bangladeshis just because we are Bengali Muslims," Nasiruddin, Khan's brother, told the Times of India. According to his brother Suberuddin, ***Khan was one of nine children and three of his brothers served in the Indian Army. One of his brothers died while in service, while two others are still serving*** [emphasis added], Suberuddin was quoted as saying in an Indian Express report. Protests in Assam over the lynching. PTI imageProtests in Assam over the lynching. PTI image "Our eldest brother who was in the Army died while in service, while two brothers, Syed Jamal Khan and Syed Kamal Khan, are with the Assam Regiment," he said. According to a Hindustan Times report, ***his slain brother Imanuddin had been killed in the Kargil war and local police officials told the newspaper that the Khan family were Bengali-speaking Muslims who had been living in the state for generations*** [emphasis added]. Even ***his father had served and retired from the Military Engineering Services for 20 years*** [emphasis added]. According to his brother in the army, Khan had set up shops for two other brothers in Dimapur, where he sold second-hand cars. Khan had been arrested on charges of raping a woman and had been remanded to judicial custody. However, an angry mob had raided the Dimapur district jail on 5 March and after taking him out paraded him naked, beat him, stoned him and dragged him a distance of 7 km which resulted in his death. His body was brought to his native Bosla village in Badarpur of Assam's Karimganj district on Saturday even as ***Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi controversially claimed in a television interview that the Nagaland government needed to prove the facts since he had received an "unofficial medical report" that there was no evidence of rape*** [emphasis added]. Khan's family has also claimed that he was framed and the girl was known to them and had demanded some money from him, a claim that unnamed home ministry sources also corroborated to the Hindustan Times. The girl, meanwhile, told a TV channel that the accused gave her money to remain silent about the incident. Khan's brother, Nasiruddin, who lived with him in Dimapur has said that his brother led a happy family life and the complainant was his wife's cousin. Nasiruddin alleged that Khan had gone with the victim and her friend to attend a party on 23 February and the police had come the next day to arrest him based on the complaint filed by the girl. He also alleged the victim had sought money which Khan's wife had refused to pay and blamed social media outrage over the incident for the lynching, according to the Times of India report. The incident has sparked protests in Assam with truckers refusing to ply to Nagaland over the issue and the Assam government increasing security and telling senior police officials to provide security to people from Nagaland in the state and ensuring the safety of travellers, the Hindu reported. The Nagaland government, that has instituted a judicial inquiry into the incident, and kept paramilitary forces on standby to instill a sense of security among non-Naga communities of the state but there has been no flag march. Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang and asked him to ensure safety and security of people and take steps to maintain law and order. He also told Zeliang that strictest action should be taken against those involved in the lynching of Khan. Assam chief minister Gogoi had written to Singh and Zeliang seeking security measures to protect people from his state. In his letter to Singh, he wrote, "Attacks on people of a particular community, especially to those belonging to minority, can have widespread repercussion in Assam, which has a huge population of Muslims." Zeliang responded to Gogoi's letter yesterday assuring him of all possible steps to ensure safety and security of people from Assam living in Nagaland. The Nagaland Cabinet had suspended Deputy Commissioner Wezope Kenye, SP Meren Jamir and B. Chuba Phom, Senior Superintendent of Central Jail, for "their failure to control the situation". While local police officials have claimed that a mob consisting of students and women raided the jail and tied their hands, doubts have also been raised over the involvement of prison staff in aiding the protesters since it turns out that all other inmates are still in jail. II. http://scroll.in/article/711861/Dimapur-authorities-were-unable-to-prevent-lynching-despite-warning-signs MOB JUSTICE Dimapur authorities were unable to prevent lynching despite warning signs Thousands of protesters had surrounded the offices of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police on Wednesday, demanding that the alleged rapist be handed over to them. Scroll Staff Yesterday ยท 04:16 pm [Look up at the site] Photo Credit: Caisii Mao/AFP[ In spite of a long build-up and clear warnings of potential violence, the Dimapur administration was unable to prevent a total breakdown of law and order in the town as an alleged rapist was brutally lynched by a thousand-strong mob on Thursday. The mob stormed the town's Central Jail, dragged out the accused and proceeded to take him to the Clock Tower junction for a public hanging, subjecting him to severe physical assaults on the way, leading to his death. The limp body of the man was still, however, dragged behind a motorcycle to the assigned spot and strung up on a fence. ***News of the rape and the arrest of the accused first broke on Tuesday and was reported by Dimapur's Morung Express News on its front page*** [emphasis added]: The Dimapur police, without disclosing why the incident was kept under wraps for over a week, said that the victim was a Naga girl in her mid-twenties. The accused is a 35 year old Dimapur-based businessman, identified as Syed Farid Khan. ***Passions regarding the incident flared up as soon as news of the alleged rape became known. In the same report, the Morung Express News wrote: The organisations [Naga Council Dimapur and the Naga Women Hoho] claimed that "unless all Nagas take responsibility to tackle the menace of unabated Bangladeshi infiltrators influx and their stay here in the state, crimes against our women and daughters by these people will only increase.*** [Emphasis added.] The NCD and the NWH further urged that "it is time Naga landlords stop renting their vacant plots and buildings to Bangladeshi infiltrators and their cohorts; time that village and colony councils ensure that no Bangladeshi infiltrators are sheltered in their jurisdictions; and time for the district administration and police at the gates to ensure that issuance of inner line permits and its monitoring is strictly checked and adhered to." The day after ***Matters became worse on Wednesday as protesters marched to the Deputy Commissioner's office demanding that the accused be handed over to them*** [emphasis added], as the Morung Express News reported: A 9-member representative team of the protesting students, accompanied by members of Survival Nagaland (SN), Naga Students' Federation (NSF), Naga Women Hoho Dimapur (NWHD) and others, held a meeting inside the DC's conference hall, with the district administration and police officials. However, the meeting failed to reach any compromise, with the students sticking to their demand. The DC and SP assured that all possible steps would be taken to punish the accused as per the law. However, they explained their inability to hand over the accused to the protestors, owing to certain provisions of the law. The Hindustan Times too noted the large number of protesters: 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. Not the first time The protests continued through the day, as the Telegraph reported: Yesterday, other protesters, including students from the college where the victim studies, damaged several shops owned by migrants despite heavy security. Some shops at New Market were set on fire late last evening. Shops at Hazi Park and Hong Kong Market areas were also damaged. The district administration clamped Section 144 in the evening to control the situation. It was relaxed this morning when another rally was organised, after which the protesters headed for the central jail at 4th Mile, overpowered the security guards at the main entrance and broke open the gates in an attempt to find Khan. The police fired blank rounds and tear gas shells and lathicharged the protesters, but could not control the crowd. Later, the jail authorities allowed the protesters to inspect the cells to identify the accused who had been shifted there from the East Dimapur police station sub-jail. The administration could have done more, noted The Nagaland Post: In any such situation, top civil and police officers even including the minister would have shown up by Thursday itself. District administration officials had on Thursday, informed that the services of the Assam Rifles and security forces were also requisitioned to control the situation but even till Thursday night, there was no sign of them at all. The district administration had clamped Section 144 Cr PC on Wednesday night but no enforcement was visible throughout the streets of Dimapur. ***This is not the first time that an alleged rapist has been lynched to death in Nagaland. Last year, an accused was lynched at Meluri town in Phek district, around 280km from Dimapur, for allegedly raping a girl and subsequently strangulating her to death, as the Telegraph reported, which is why the nature of the protests should have forewarned the police.*** [Emphasis added.] ***Much of the violence seems to have been driven by xenophobic hysteria against outsiders - in this case Bengali Muslims*** [emphasis added], as reported by the The Hindustan Times: Meanwhile, ***there were unconfirmed reports of migrant Muslims leaving or trying to leave Dimapur for relative safety in Assam*** [emphasis added]. Engaged mostly as farm labourers or construction workers, the migrants have periodically been targeted during anti-migrant violence in Nagaland. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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