WhatsApp becomes India’s new serial killer...via lynching

NEW DELHI: It was meant to be a phone app which facilitated instant conversations. Instead WhatsApp is now becoming an instigator for quick violence. Most often the target is an outsider – somebody from another area or state, another religion or simply somebody who looks different or speaks a different language; the poor and destitute are particularly vulnerable.


FIVE DOWN: In what has now become a daily occurrence, as the plague of rumour mongering spreads across the country, five people were lynched to death in Rainpada village of Maharashtra’s Dhule district by villagers who suspected them of being child-lifters - merely because one of them tried to speak to a girl child, which was apparently cue enough for the villagers gathered at the Sunday bazaar to kill them. According to police, there were rumours for the last few days that a gang of child lifters was active in the area.

TWO DOWN, ALMOST: In Tamil Nadu’s Perumampatti village in Trichy district, two men just about escaped becoming a lynching statistic when they were beaten up by villagers on suspicion that they were child lifters. On seeing the two strangers, the villagers grew suspicious. Sensing trouble, the duo wearing Muslim attire started to run. The villagers chased them for two kilometres and caught them at Aandi Goundampatti.The villagers searched the shoulder bags of the duo and found some thayathus (cylindrical capsules made of metals to tie around the waistS of children). This further strengthened the villagers’ suspicion. On getting information, the Manapparai police rushed to the spot and took them to the police station. The men were eventually found to be thayathu sellers.

13 STRIKES: So far, there have been 13 incidents of lynching related to rumours circulated through WhatsApp about suspected child lifters and kidnappers - resulting in the murders of 27 people, in less than two months. Fake Whatsapp messages whip up a frenzy in minutes and before any sanity can prevail, innocents have been clobbered to death. Mobs are mobilised in seconds because the message has reached scores at the same time, giving real-time details of the so-called suspects.

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