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A 32-year-old computer engineer became the latest victim of an avalanche of lynchings in 19459004 in India, apparently caused by rumors circulating in 1945-19004 about kidnappings . Deepthi Bathini, a BBC journalist, tells how the attack happened.
"They kept beating us, demanding to know how many children we had kidnapped," says Mohammad Salman, still in shock, with the July 13, 22-year-old Salma, and two friends were brutally beaten by a crowd who suspected that they had kidnapped children.
The last thing he remembers his friend, Mohammad Azam, is dragged with a rope around his neck. Azam died of his wounds.
The three men visited their relatives in Handikera, a small village surrounded by lush fields in the state of Karnataka
They lived in Hyderabad, the capital of the neighboring state of Telangana. They went to town with two other friends to spend the weekend.
But in the hours that followed their arrival, the five were accused of being kidnappers and attacked by rabid villagers
We checked the videos to determine who was attacking and who If we found others, we would stop them too, "said a policeman.
Since April 2018, at least 17 people were reportedly killed in India because of rumors of kidnappings. Children
In all of these cases, the police say that rumors spread through messages in WhatsApp .Five gangs gather quickly and attack strangers, leaving little time for the police to answer
That seems to be what happened in Handikera.
Salman says that they were heading to a lake on the outskirts of the city when they saw a group of 39, children returning from school.
He badured one of his friends was wearing chocolates and decided to give them to the kids. But as the car moved quickly, he threw the chocolates out the window.
According to Salman, they never stopped and continued to drive until they reached the lake. They installed folding chairs and sat down to relax.
"Before we realized what was going on, the villagers came together and started accusing us of kidnappers," recalls Mohammad Afroz, who was with Salman. It is clear that the villagers suspected that they were kidnappers of children
"We tried to reason with them, but it did not help, they started throwing stones on the drive and hit my friends. "
Afroz called his uncle, Mohammad Yakub, who ran to the place, but the villagers did not hear either.
Later, the police found a video of the altercation on the phone of a man who was supposed to be part of the crowd. The man shared the video in a group of WhatsApp of 200 members
When Salman, Azam and a third friend, Salham Ali, managed to escape in the car, The villagers realized that they were heading to the nearby village, Murki
According to the police, someone in the crowd called a friend to Murki and told him to monitor a red car with kidnappers. # 39; children.
Afroz and the fifth man Noor Mohammad, they stayed near the lake but they escaped because the crowd followed the car.
"We thought that the problem had been solved and that we would soon meet the others," says Afroz. "But five minutes later, I received a call telling me that his car had fallen into a ditch at Murki."
Salman says the Murki villagers had blocked the road with logs and because they were going so fast
"They started curdling the car and they broke the windows with sticks and stones , they even shot me and hit me very hard, "he says
" They attacked us with knives, sickles and sticks. There were also women in the crowd. "
A video that police obtained from witnesses shows a furious crowd surrounding the overturned car.
You can see a police officer, helpless, praying the crowd to stop attacking men
] Salman adds that he and his friend Ali survived because the police hid them in the trunk of the car to protect them, but they could not save Azam.
Salman says some villagers also tried to help them, but that the crowd was too big to be controlled.
According to some estimates, it was made up of hundreds of people. "We all received the video in the group," says Vijay Patil, a witness who at a tea shop in Murki
adding that he left the band that night after seeing caused a video in WhatsApp .
Salman says the crowd is not Is not dispersed for more than an hour, until five police vehicles arrive as reinforcements.
By then, eight officers had been injured. They were in the area trying to stop them.
Mallikarjun, a police officer who did not want to reveal his last name, suffered several fractures in his leg that night. He says that he has not been able to sleep since then.
"I get up, scared," he says. "The faces of the three men inside the car, complaining for their lives, hands crossed and bleeding faces, still hover in my head."
The district administration says it has run awareness programs after the recent lynching "Even after all our efforts, this incident is very regrettable," says a manager who participated in the campaign.
The village seems dismayed by the incident. Murki has a population of 5,000 and is usually a quiet place. Police say they were not equipped to cope with such a large and violent crowd, usually dealing with domestic disputes, property disputes or relationships with drunkards
"Everybody is Shocked and half of the villagers fled "We thought the rumors could be true, because of the way they were going in the car, we thought they were guilty of kidnapping children, "says one of his brothers."
"But now we read who they were and we feel very badly."
This article was written with additional reports by Balla Satish.
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