BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: Welfare Party of India (WPI) strongly condemned the inhuman lynching of a youth from Assam for the alleged rape of a Naga girl. Farid Khan was accused of raping a 20-year-old Naga woman. Police arrested him on February 25 and a lower court sent him to judicial custody. A strong mob in thousands broke open the prison where he was kept, dragged him out and stripped him and thrashed to death. Party national general secretary PC Hamza in a statement said this mere mobocracy where people take law in their hands and asked the Nagaland government to bring all criminals of the mob took part in the Dimapur lynching to justice, take legal and disciplinary actions against erring police officials and to provide substantial compensation to his family.
It is highly disturbing that it took place in a highly policed state with large presence of military personnel. Incidents of mobocracy, people taking law into their hands, especially against vulnerable sections will harm the very basic of democracy and law of the land. Breaking the Dimapur Prison by force, taking out the accused, thrashing and dragging him for about 7 kms after stripping is a shame for all those human values, criminal law and justice. It is even unheard in jungle raj. This cannot happen without complicity of police officers and other officials. Police inquiry has not been completed; medical reports are yet to substantiate the rape charge.
It is also an irony that this happens to a person hailing from a family with army background. His father served in the Military Engineers Service of the Indian army for 20 years, his two brothers still serving as military personnel and one brother was a martyr in the Kargil war. It is more worrying that Farid Khan was suspected and alleged to be an “IBI”, an abbreviation commonly used in Nagaland for “illegal Bangladeshi immigrant” though his family with army background has been living in India for generations.
Welfare Party also asked to investigate the wider social reasons and implications involved in this event.
