Claims in Kashmir spark mass panic and mob violence

UK - A British woman and three Australians have been briefly detained by vigilantes amid mass panic in Indianadministered Kashmir over a spate of alleged braid choppings.

Police in the Himalayan region say they have received reports of at least 40 instances of women’s hair being forcibly cut by unidentified assailants. Though the veracity of the claims has been questioned, they have sparked mob violence and mass protests, and some young women say they are too afraid to leave their homes. The first alleged incidents were reported on 14 September in the restive southern districts of the disputed state, and the reports have now spread to its capital, Srinagar. Vigilante groups armed with axes and wooden boards have been formed in some neighborhoods in response to the alleged attacks. At least 12 people, including the tourists, have required police to rescue them from mobs. The British and Australian travelers, accompanied by an Irish and South Korean national, became lost at around 2am on Sunday while en route to Srinagar. “They were checking their mobiles asking me to go right and left,” their driver, Abid Hussain, told the Guardian. “At one point they asked me to stop and said they had reached the hotel. “One of them went down to check the hotel and shouted to open the door. Within seconds a crowd of 1,000 or more people had gathered. It was very scary,” he said. Consular officials said the group were quickly set free unharmed, but police say several other people have been “beaten and thrashed severely” by the vigilantes. Police are at a loss to explain the alleged crimes but have doubled the reward for information about the culprits to 600,000 rupees. The government has called emergency meetings and put local officials on high alert.

(Thegaurdian.com)