Curfew in Arunachal’s Roing Town after Assam Migrant Worker Lynched

The Roing town administration imposed a curfew under Section 144 of the CrPC to prevent further escalation in the area on Sunday after a mob lynched a migrant worker from Assam on allegations of sexual harassment. The teenager identified as Riaz-Ul Kurim (19 years) is a resident of Bongaigaon district in Assam and worked at a construction site near Mount Carmel Mission School in the Lower Dibang Valley district.

After several allegations of Kurim sexually harassing several teenage girls at the school’s hostel emerged, the school authorities met their parents on Thursday. Following the meeting, the enraged parents went to the construction site and thrashed all the labourers present there. There were also reports that the incident first came to light when the girls complained of abdominal pain and their parents took them to the hospital. The parents then proceeded to file and FIR with the police.

Although Kurim managed to flee from the site on Thursday, he was eventually tracked down at a nearby colony and beaten up by both the victims’ parents and locals on Friday. The police reached the spot and rescued him from the mob before taking him into custody. However, this was not the end of trouble for Kurim as the mob entered the police station and forcibly removed him from police custody, tied him to a tree, and thrashed him again before he was taken to the hospital for treatment. Lower Dibang Valley Superintendent of Police Ringu Ngupok said that the mob reached the hospital also and severely beat him up leading to his death on Friday.

Ngupok said that the enraged mob did not pay any heed to the police or the local MLA’s repeated appeals for calm. A post-mortem was carried out at the Roing district hospital in the presence of a judicial magistrate.

Reports said that Kurim took advantage of the fact the school’s hostel had no grills and locks on its doors and windows, providing him easy access to his victims. He also reportedly took advantage of the lax security to enter the hostel premises at night and molest and rape the girls aged between six and eight years, over the course of a week.

With the tense situation in Roing reaching a fever pitch height, the administration was left with no choice but to impose curbs in the town. SP Ringu Ngupok said that following the imposition of curfew, the situation still remained tense but was under control. Four companies of additional security forces have been deployed, and the situation is being closely monitored. Several cases of child sexual assault and lynching have been registered over the incident, with sources saying that the school’s administration would also be questioned in the case. So far, eight girls have undertaken medical examinations.

Meanwhile, the district administration has sealed the concerned school indefinitely and instructed the parents to take their wards to other schools nearby. They condemned both the mob violence and the lynching and requested the locals to allow the police to do their job.

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