BFF-51 Indian state cuts internet after three new lynchings

300

ZCZC

BFF-51

INDIA-CHILDREN-CRIME-INTERNET-DEATH-LEAD

Indian state cuts internet after three new lynchings

NEW DELHI, June 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Authorities in northeastern India
have cut internet access after crazed mobs beat three people to death in
lynchings sparked by rumours spread on smartphones, officials said Friday.

They were the latest in a string of more than 25 similar killings in
recent months across India, according to press reports, that have been
ignited by false information spread on messaging service WhatsApp.

“The administration has decided to cut off the internet and mobile
messaging services for next 48 hours… to stop rumour mongering,” said
Smriti Ranjan Das, a police spokesman in the tribal-dominated state of
Tripura.

The latest victims, one of whom was tasked by authorities with warning
people against hoaxes, perished in three separate incidents on Thursday in
Tripura.

Locals in Sabroom, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the state capital
Agartala, attacked “rumour buster” Sukanta Chakraborty with sticks and bricks
as he was warning people on a megaphone against erroneous rumours.

Tripura police said it was unclear what sparked the attack.

Das told AFP that the man died on the spot and that his driver was
injured in a frenzied attack that lasted nearly an hour.

“It was a sudden and vicious attack and they didn’t get time to escape.
Our teams reached on the spot and could only rescue the driver,” the police
spokesman said.

Hours before in West Tripura district, a nearly 1,000-strong mob
attacked four traders from northern Uttar Pradesh state, killing one and
leaving the others critically injured.

The four took refuge inside a paramilitary camp after hundreds of people
believing them to be child kidnappers chased their vehicle after they stopped
for a tea break on a road.

But the mob entered the base and dragged all four from the car,
attacking them with sticks and rods as soldiers unsuccessfully tried to break
up the crowd by firing warning shots.

Police official Das identified the victim as Zahir Khan. A soldier was
also critically injured. Photos of the aftermath showed the men’s badly
dented van with its windows smashed and the doors yanked open.

Hours before in the same area, a mob set upon an unidentified woman
after she was spotted by residents walking around their village, Das said.

The woman in her 40s was beaten with batons and dragged across the
village as tribal residents chanted “death to child lifters”, police said.

-‘Rumour busters’-

No arrests have been made in the cases but authorities said they were
questioning several suspects.

State chief minister Biplab Deb in a tweet warned of strict action
against people indulging in spreading rumours and fake news.

He accused his political opponents of fuelling the rumours to
destabilise his government as demands for him to step down intensified.

Indian authorities regularly block internet or mobile services in
volatile situations such as religious or caste riots to avoid the spread of
information that can stir further trouble.

India has a whopping billion-plus mobile phone users, the largest
anywhere in the world, with an estimated 478 million smartphone internet
users.

Videos — such as a Pakistani safety video showing a child being
kidnapped by two men on a motorbike — are often passed off as real incidents
along with text messages that urge parents to be on high alert, fuelling mass
hysteria in response to the hoax warnings.

The rash of attacks — usually targeting outsiders — has left the
authorities scrambling to mount an effective response, with awareness
campaigns and alerts to the public having a limited effect.

The current spate of lynchings started last year in May in eastern
Jharkhand state after rumours on WhatsApp about child kidnappers led to the
lynching of six men.

Similar viral messages started doing the rounds in February but this
time in western Rajasthan state where a 25-year-old migrant worker was
murdered by a mob.

It soon spread to several southern states where crowds have killed at
least nine people since May, including an elderly woman spotted giving
chocolates to children.

BSS/AFP/RY/1910 hrs