by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- One person was beaten to death and four others including a foreigner were seriously injured by rumour-driven mobs in southern Indian state of Karnataka, officials said Sunday.
The lynching took place on Friday evening in Bidar, north of Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka state.
The deceased has been identified as 32-year-old software engineer Mohammad Azam, a resident of Hyderabad in adjacent Telangana state. He along with his four persons including his friend Mohammad Salam, a Qatari national, had gone on a picnic to Bidar - a hilltop city.
Police officials said mob frenzy started after the Qatari Salam was seen distributing chocolates to local children.
"While returning from the drive they stopped near Murki village on seeing school children. Azam's friend Mohammad Salam who was carrying chocolates decided to distribute them among the children. Suddenly a local person came and starting video recording it on his mobile phone," Mohammed Akram, brother of Azam said.
Reports said rumors of child kidnapping were swirling in the area for quite some time and seeing chocolates being distributed, new messages through WhatsApp group lit the fuse.
A crowd gathered at the spot and surrounded the men by clicking their photos and videos on mobile phones, besides arguing with them. The behavior panicked the men who got into their vehicle and began to drove away.
Police said some of the villagers chased them on motorcycles and suddenly the speeding car hit one of the motorcycles and fell into a culvert.
Reports said by the time crowd have gathered in size and no sooner it reached the spot, the young men were dragged out and mercilessly beaten with clubs and stones. Despite presence of hundreds of villagers on the spot none came forward to their rescue.
By the time police reached the spot Azam was dead and others were taken to the hospital in injured condition, officials said.
The other four injured in the incident were undergoing treatment at hospital and of them condition of one was said to be critical.
"For quite some time in entire India targeted lynchings are being carried out especially attacks on Muslims. Yesterday's attack on five people in Karnataka where in one Qatri national too was also targeted indicates that even Muslims from foreign countries are not safe here," Ahmed Bin Abdullah Balala, a lawmaker from Hyderabad told media.
Police have arrested 30 people - including the administrator of WhatsApp group Murki brothers, from where the video of the men went viral - for the killing.
Earlier this month five people were lynched in Maharashtra on suspicion of being child kidnappers.
The WhatsApp videos that had triggered the attack were fake - one of them was a five-year-old video from Syria that had photographs of children who died in a nerve gas attack, reports said.
Analysts say mob justice seems to highlight the deteriorating law and order in India and points at the inefficiency of police force in the country.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Akram appealed the government to stop mob killings.
"My brother was unable to communicate with the people who surrounded him and brutally killed him," he said. "I appeal government and people to stop spreading rumors so that such incident won't be repeated again and again."