2,000-strong mob kill engineer over child-kidnapping rumours in India’s latest lynching
'One of them had bought chocolates from Qatar and tried to offer it to a group of children as a token of affection'
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Your support makes all the difference.Police in southern India have arrested 25 people following the killing of a man killed by a mob in the country’s latest lynching, over suspicions the victim was a member of a child kidnapping ring, after rumours were sparked on messaging platform WhatsApp.
Three other men, including a Qatari national, were wounded when a 2,000-strong mob armed with sticks and stones attacked them on Friday night as they drove through a village in Karnataka's Bidar district.
Police said the deceased, Mohammad Azam, a 27-year-old software engineer, and his companions were returning to Hyderabad city after visiting their friend in Bidar when they stopped and offered chocolates to local children.
“One of them had bought chocolates from Qatar and tried to offer it to a group of children as a token of affection,” said VN Patil, the Bidar deputy police chief.
After one of the children began crying, the village elders accused the men of being child-kidnappers amid social media rumours about child-kidnapping rings in the area, police said.
According to the New Delhi Television, the slain engineer's brother said: "My brother gave chocolates to children. We don't know what their parents thought but several villagers gathered and beat them. How can they think they were kidnappers?"
My brother gave chocolates to children. We don't know what their parents thought but several villagers gathered and beat them. How can they think they were kidnappers?
Mr Patil said three of the men had initially managed to flee but were attacked by a much larger mob a few miles away after locals alerted nearby villages.
Their car flipped after hitting a roadblock erected to prevent their escape before they were dragged out of the vehicle and beaten.
Mr Azam’s friends were injured in the assault and one remains in a serious condition while three policemen were also wounded during the rescue attempts as the mob rampaged for nearly an hour.
It came days after the Facebook-owned messaging service published advertisements in Indian newspapers offering tips to curb the spread of fake information on its platform.
More than 20 people have been lynched in India after being accused of child abduction in the last two months, according to media reports.
Five people were lynched by a mob in neighbouring Maharashtra state on 1 July.
The mob had spotted the victims talking to a child at a market, triggering allegations of child abduction.
The spate of lynchings started last May in eastern Jharkhand state after rumours on WhatsApp about child kidnappers led to the lynching of seven men.
The rumours have since resurfaced, with 21 deaths reported in dozens of attacks across the country, mostly targeting non-locals.
Although Indian authorities have clarified that there was no truth to the rumours and that the targeted people were innocent, the deadly and brutal attacks – which are often captured on cell phones and shared on social media – have spread across the country amid snowballing hysteria and moral panic.
India has accused WhatsApp of failing to curb false information on its encrypted platform.
Agence France Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report
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