Headlines
Dimapur lynching: Assam truckers stop plying to Nagaland
Truckers in Assam on Saturday stopped plying their vehicles from here to
Dimapur and other parts of Nagaland in protest against the lynching of a
rape accused in Nagaland's commercial hub Dimapur on Thursday.
At least 17 truckers' bodies in Assam said on Saturday that the protest will continue until the victims' family gets justice.
"The
killing of Syed Farid Khan, a Dimapur based businessman from Assam, is
an inhuman act. The Nagaland government must provide adequate
compensation to the family of the victim and ensure that no other
traders or businessman of Assam is harassed in Nagaland," said a member
of the All Assam Truck Owners' Association.
The truckers' bodies
also complained about the harassment of truckers by several sections in
Nagaland, particularly by the militant outfits on ceasefire in the form
of illegal tax collection.
"Apart from paying the mandatory tax
to the government of Nagaland, we have to pay to all the militant
outfits in different locations while ferrying goods including essential
commodities. We have intimated this to the authorities in Nagaland as
well as in Assam several times. However, nothing have changed," he said.
Apart
from truckers' bodies, different civil society organizations have also
staged protest dharnas in different parts of Assam protesting against
the killing and demanding compensation to the victim's family.
International
Human Rights body, Amnesty International has also expressed its concern
over the killing and said that members of the mob who lynched the rape
accused must be brought to justice urgently.
"This is a serious
lapse in the criminal justice system. The Nagaland government must
ensure that every person who was part of the mob is brought to justice.
Failure to do so will send the message that anyone can commit outrageous
abuses and attempt to justify them as an expression of public anger,"
said Shemeer Babu, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India.
It
may be mentioned here that a mob on Thursday broke into the Central
Jail, Dimapur and took custody of Farid Khan, who had allegedly raped a
girl on February 23 and subsequently was arrested by the police and sent
to judicial custody.
The mob then rallied to the Clock Tower in
the town from the jail with Khan, brutally thrashing him over 7 km
stretch leading to his death. The mob had also strung the body to the
railing of the Clock Tower for public viewing till police came and
retrieved it by resorting to firing.
The Nagaland government has
instituted a judicial probe into the incident and suspended three top
official of the district - the deputy commissioner, superintendent of
police and jail superintendent - for their failure to handle the
situation.
The chief minister had assured security to all the
non-locals in Dimapur and other parts of the hilly state and said that
the culprits will be brought to the book soon