Kohima:
Curfew was clamped on Sunday in Dimapur town of Nagaland where 22 people were arrested in connection with the lynching of a rape accused, as protests rocked many parts of Assam and a 12-hour bandh was observed in the Barak valley.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) G Akheto Seema said that curfew had been imposed in Dimapur town from three pm till 12 midnight to maintain peace.
The arrests were made since last evening on the basis of mobile video footage of the gruesome incident in which rape accused Syed Farid Khan was dragged out of jail and beaten to death in Dimapur.
Khan was today buried at his native Bosla village in Karimganj district amidst tight security. A large number of people attended the burial with former minister and Karimganj (South) MLA Siddeque Ahmed being present, Karimganj Deputy Commissioner Sanjiv Gohain Boruah said.
Khan’s body had been airlifted to Karimganj last evening after Nagaland authorities handed over his body to the Dimapur Muslim Council.
The Barak valley bandh in Assam, called by several political, social and business organisations, was total as shops and market places were closed and vehicular traffic remained off the road, official reports from the districts said.
There was, however, no report of any untoward incident from the three districts of Karimganj, Cachar and Hailakandi of the valley where the bandh was observed, officials said.
Medical reports related to the alleged rape incident were awaited.
The Nagland government has imposed a 48-hour Internet blackout in the state beginning last night after videos related to the lynching of the rape accused in Dimapur surfaced on the net.
The government order published in the local newspapers today also instructed mobile service providers to block SMS/MMS services.
Syed Farid Khan, hailing from Assam, owned a motorparts shop in Dimapur. He had been arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in Dimapur on February 24 and remanded to judicial custody in the Dimapur Central Jail the next day.
On March 5, a mob broke into the jail, dragged him out, stripped him naked, beat him up, pelted him with stones and dragged him towards the centre of Dimapur town, seven kilometres away. He died from his injuries on the way after which the mob displayed his body from a clock tower.
