“I heard screams of ‘help me’. When I attempted to call the police, the assaulters turned to me and asked me if I wanted to live,” said a neighbour of John, who was targeted by a mob on Monday night. John’s cries and sounds of beer bottles and stones shattering his window pane rang out on the streets of Byrathi Cross. Amidst the horror playing out there, neighbours – who were Indian nationals – were rendered helpless as the mob turned its fury on them. “We could not even go close…the attackers, many of whom were inebriated, were full of rage and we feared for our lives,” said another neighbour there. The fury was such that even the arrival of the police at around 1.15 a.m. did little to abate the attacks.
Neighbours did not help John though they heard his desperate screams. It was only after two hours that the police and his friends retrieved him from his house and admitted him to a nearby private hospital. — Special Correspondent
