Eighteen persons have been arrested in connection with the jail break and lynching of a rape accused in Dimapur on March 5.
Thousands of protesters had stormed the central jail in Dimapur and dragged out Syed Sarif Khan, who was accused of raping a 20-year-old Naga student, and beat him to death.
Khan hailed from Karimganj in Assam. His family members said he had been framed since he refused to pay illegal taxes. The rape was not established during the medical test, they said. They also denied the charge that Khan was a Bangladeshi national. His father was an ex-serviceman and his brother is an Army Major, the Dimapur Muslim Council said.
Meanwhile, the 12-hour general strike in Assam’s Barak valley affected the traffic in Manipur. Several trucks, buses and private and commercial vehicles could not reach Jiribam, the entry point of Manipur along NH 37.
Prohibitory orders
In view of the improved law and order situation in Dimapur, curfew was relaxed on Sunday morning and re-imposed at 3 p.m. But the prohibitory orders continue to be in force.
Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang asked politicians not to politicise the incident. Home Minister Y. Patton said rumours were being spread to the effect that a mosque in Dimapur was vandalised and damaged. Terming it reprehensible, he asked the people not to believe such baseless rumours.
The Home Minister said the accused had been arrested within a short span of the complaint being lodged. The way the rape accused was dragged out, paraded naked and then killed was condemnable. Some persons had uploaded the incident in the social media thereby aggravating the issue, he said.
To check misuse of social media, Internet and SMS have been blocked in Dimapur and adjoining areas for 48 hours. The Muslim Council, Dimapur, has also appealed for calm.
