Dimapur seethes after outrage

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 6: In perhaps the first such outrage of its kind in the country, a violent mob of over 10,000 people raided the Central Jail in Dimapur, dragged out a rape accused, paraded him ked and later lynched him in public before stringing the body to a tower on Thursday afternoon.

The law and order situation totally collapsed in galand’s commercial hub as school children and college students joined the seething mob, despite prohibitory orders in place.

The rape accused, Syed Farid Khan (35), a resident of Badarpur in Assam, was a small-time trader dealing in scrap and used cars. The incident triggered a backlash against Bangladeshi immigrants in Dimapur, with their houses and shops coming under attack.

Khan was arrested following an FIR which alleged that he raped a college girl multiple times on the night of February 23. Khan and the girl are neighbours.

An official source in galand said the mob first organized a protest rally in the town and then marched towards the jail.

“They overpowered the jail security, tore down two gates and dragged the accused out. He was paraded ked for seven kilometers to the town’s Clock Tower. Along the way he was severely beaten, tortured and even towed with a motorcycle. He succumbed on the way. But the mob did not relent. Still tied to a motorcycle, the body was dragged around the Clock Tower several times. The ked body was then strung to the Clock Tower,” the source said.

The mob then headed to Pura Bazar area, where the rape-accused had his shop, and reportedly set several shops and houses on fire.

Dimapur Superintendent of Police Meren Jamir said the police tried all possible ways to prevent the mob. “But there were school children and college students. You cannot use much force. Yet we fired hundreds of rounds in the air,” he said.

One person was killed in the police firing and three others wounded, the SP said. Over ten vehicles, including those of police, were torched by the mob.

“I have submitted a report to the galand government today,” the SP added, but refused to comment when asked if the rape accused was a suspected Bangladeshi infiltrator.

Curfew was clamped in the town Thursday evening. Today, the town bore a deserted look as the residents stayed indoors.

Officials said that two inmates of the jail also made good their escape in the mob fury.

Dimapur had witnessed massive protests over the rape incident on Wednesday as well, and there were indications that the simmering anger could flare-up.

The protestors had on Wednesday demanded the administration to hand over the accused to them. The protestors held placards which read ‘Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrant (IBI) get out of galand, this is our land,’ ‘gas are not safe in galand,’ ‘We want justice, where is the law?’, ‘Stop committing crime against women’, ‘Before committing crime against women, think of your own mom, daughters and sisters’, ‘Our sisters are not alone’, ‘galand is not rape-land, so is Dimapur not a city of rapists’, etc. The protestors then marched through the streets of Dimapur demanding ‘justice’.

The protestors on Wednesday had forced shop keepers to down their shutters. Traders and vendors ran for safety as the crowd swelled.

Later, thousands of people, including students, gheraoed the Dimapur Deputy Commissioner’s office. The people demanded that the accused be handed over to them by the administration.

The Dimapur district administration had promulgated 144 CrPC in the district from 7 pm of Wednesday, prohibiting assembly of five or more persons.

galand has been in the grip of an agitation over the issue of illegal immigrants for the past two weeks.