22 Arrested After Lynching of Rape Suspect in India
Police have used photographs and videos posted to social media to identify and arrest 22 people connected to the beating and death of a prisoner accused of rape, The New York Times reports. Police say they have identified between 200 and 300 people out of the mob of thousands, and more arrests are expected.
A police inspector general in Kohima, Wabang Jamir, identified the prisoner as Syed Sarif Khan. From the Times:
The charges against those arrested included unlawful assembly, rioting and arson. Shops were burned during the protests that sprang up on Wednesday and Thursday, after it was learned that a man said to be an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh had been arrested in the rape of a woman from a Naga tribe. As yet, none of those arrested have been charged in his death.
The lynching came amidst controversy over the Indian government's decision to ban screenings of a documentary about the fatal 2012 gang rape of a young woman in Delhi, The Guardian reports.
[Photo credit: AP Images]