Dozens held after latest Whatsapp mob lynching amid child kidnap fears

Three dozen people have been arrested in southern India for lynching a software engineer and wounding three other men after rumours that they were child kidnappers were circulated on the Whatsapp messaging service.

Police said yesterday that the victims, who included a Qatari national, were travelling in a car through a village in Karnataka’s Bidar district when a mob of more than 2,000 armed with sticks and stones attacked them on Friday night.

Villagers were infuriated after the men tried to hand over some chocolates to children, said a police officer, Mr Chandrashekhar.

The children panicked, attracting villagers who started beating the men, the officer said.

The men gave them the slip but locals had already taken their pictures and a video and circulated them through Whatsapp to alert neighbouring villages that four child abductors were trying to escape, he said.

Mr Chandrashekhar said that, as the men reached another village, they hit a roadblock set up by the awaiting villagers and their car flipped.

Then a mob attacked them, killing one and wounding the three others, he said.

Police tried to stop the mob, but this triggered clashes in which four policemen sustained injuries, Mr Chandrashekhar said.

The slain man was a 32-yearold from the neighbouring state of Telangana and was visiting a friend with his cousins and a Qatari friend.

The victim’s brother told New Delhi Television: “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?”

The injured men were taken to hospital. One man was said to be in a serious condition.

The video of the mob violence, which was aired by Indian broadcasters, showed the crowd carrying sticks and beating the men as police pleaded with them to stop.

Earlier this month, five people were killed in a similar attack in western India.

The country has seen a series of mob attacks in the past few months ignited by messages circulated through social media that child abducting gangs were operating in villages and towns.

At least 20 people have been killed and dozens injured in such attacks since early May.

Although the authorities have said that there was no truth in the rumours and that the targeted people were completely innocent, the deadly and brutal attacks, often captured on mobile phones and shared on social media, have spread across the country.