KOLKATA: Like crores of residents at Nadia and Burdwan districts in West Bengal, 16-year-old Rini Banerjee is afraid to go out of her house alone, even in broad daylight. The residents live in fear of terror unleashed by angry mobs over rumours spread through social media about child and women traffickers lurking in the two districts.
The rumours spread through WhatsApp and Facebook have led to one person being lynched and over 13 injured in instances of mob violence over the past one week.
Rumours have been doing the rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp that several woman and child traffickers are lurking in the area and they need to be 'taught lessons wherever and whenever found'.
"Don't spare the women as they are the agents," read one message in Facebook inciting mob violence. Accordingly, innocent women with their children, salesmen and even mentally-challenged persons have come under attack in Ranagahat, Shantipur, Krishnanagar, Kalyani and Habibpur areas of Nadia district and Kalna area of Burdwan district.
One such mob incident sparked reprisals when a Habibpur resident was lynched by a mob in Kalna on Thursday and four others critically injured when they came there to sprinkle pesticide over plants.
Even though the victims showed their voter ID cards to prove they were residents of neighbouring Nadia district, the mob refused to listen.
Sources revealed that the five persons were beaten up with sticks and bricks for over an hour and a half, which resulted in severe blood loss of the victims. The victims Anil Biswas, Byanjan Biswas, Narayan Das, Manik Sarkar and Madhumangal Talukdar were first admitted to Kalna hospital and then shifted to Burdwan.
Anil Biswas (48) was brought dead to Burdwan Medical College, where the four other severely injured men are recovering. Kalna police said that 12 persons have been arrested in the incident.
As news of the Kalna lynching reached the victims' native villages, angry mobs in Habibpur burnt a Kalna-bound bus on Friday before getting the passengers out. However, even as Habibpur burnt, two salesmen were beaten, tied and locked up in a primary school in rural Kalna and two mentally-challenged persons were thrashed by a mob in Shantipur in Nadia district on Friday on suspicions of being child traffickers.
Police had to lob teargas shells and fire rubber bullets to rescue the salesmen, whom the stone-pelting mob refused to hand over. Four persons were pulled out of a car and beaten up on Wednesday near Nadia district headquarters Krishnanagar on suspicions of being child traffickers.
"Even women are not being spared. I am unable to attend school or evening tuitions. I urge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to put an end to these 'mob justices'," Rini said. A mob of women rounded up a car and beat up a woman whom they accused to be a child trafficking agent on Saturday. Later, it was found that the woman, who was with her daughter, had come to the area in Burdwan district to visit her relatives.
“Nobody knows who is spreading the rumours or to what extent they are true but we are very scared to venture out of our locality for fear of being attacked without any justification,” Rana Haldar, a resident of Shantipur said.
Meanwhile, state director general of police Surajit Kar Purakayastha on Monday in a joint presser with Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and joint commissioner of Kolkata Police (Special Task Force) Vishal Garg, urged the people of the affected districts not to pay any heed to the rumours, which he said were being spread by some anti-social elements with motive to spread unrest in the state.
"Over 25 people involved in the mob violence have been arrested and police is investigating the incidents over the past one week. I urge people not to lend an ear to the rumours that child and woman traffickers are lurking in their areas and not to take law into your hands," Kar Purakayastha said.