A 25-year-old youth was shot dead and four others sustained injuries in a police firing which started after a mob broke into a jail, dragged a rape accused out and lynched him to death in Nagaland's Dimapur town on Thursday evening.
The dead youth, identified as Inito, and four others were in the mob when the police started firing at those protesting against the rape of a Naga girl by a suspected Bangladeshi infiltrator since Wednesday.
While Inito, who took two bullets on his chest, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday night, the other four are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dimapur. One of the four injured is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Hindustan Times reported.
The unrest in the north-eastern city began after the parents of a Naga girl lodged a complaint against Syed Farid Khan, on 23 February accusing him of raping her repeatedly. Khan, who had migrated from Assam and was working as a second-hand car dealer, was arrested and sent to the Dimapur central jail.
The mob on Wednesday gathered around the offices of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police and insisted that they hand over the 35-year-old rape accused to them.
The situation grew tense when the police resorted to firing after the mob of around 4,000 people broke into the jail where the rape accused was imprisoned and dragged him out to the middle of the street.
The mob stripped Khan naked and beat him up on their way to Dimapur's Clock Tower where they had planned to hang him in public. However, Khan could not sustain his injuries for long and died mid-way. Filled with anger, the mob took his dead body to the Clock Tower and hanged it on the building's fencing.
By now the police came into action and started firing randomly at the mob, which in turn pelted stones at them and put 10 police vehicles on fire. It was during this that Inito was shot and four others were left injured.
The district authorities have taken precautionary measures sensing more protests by the locals in response to Inito's death and deployed a team of Indian Reserve Battalion and paramilitary personnel in the town and areas around it.
Dimapur deputy commissioner Wezope Kenye said the curfew imposed on Wednesday evening in the wake of protest will continue to remain until the situation is under control. "There has been no untoward incident but the situation is tense," Kenye said.
An emergency cabinet meeting was conducted at the residential office of the chief minister in order to take control of the lawlessness that prevailed in the city. The meeting was chaired by minister for social security & welfare Kiyanilie Peseyie as the Chief Minister was in Delhi.
As per a release by the CMO Media Cell, the cabinet had condemned the incident and said that the mob taking the law into their hands was highly unfortunate.
The cabinet informed that a committee would be set up to probe into the matter which would investigate if any public servant was involved in the violent incident and also inquire about the people who were responsible for the rapist's death.
