Guwahati, India - Police in the Indian state of Assam have arrested at least 18 people in connection with the lynching of two youths following rumours on social media and WhatsApp that they were child traffickers.

Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das were beaten to death on Saturday by a mob of around 200 people in a remote village of Karbi Anglong district, some 200km east of the state capital, Guwahati.

The duo is the latest victims of rumours circulating on social media, particularly WhatsApp, about the child kidnapping gangs.

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"We have taken strict measures against the culprits and arrested 18 individuals. We have also arrested some persons who were involved in spreading rumours on social media," Director General of Assam Police (DGP) Kuladhar Saikia told Al Jazeera.

The clip of the lynching was widely shared on social media, which showed Das pleading with folded hands: "Don't kill me ... Please don't beat me. I am an Assamese … Please let me go."

Nath, 30, and Das, 29, had gone to remote Panjuri Kachari village on Saturday for sightseeing in a black four-wheel drive, when they were chased and beaten to death on the suspicion of child kidnapping.

"There was a rumour that some child abductors had entered our village. This was shared via WhatsApp and Facebook. The message also read that one of the abductors had long hair," said a village woman at Panjuri Kachari village who didn't wish to be named.

"The youth were stopped and asked about their whereabouts. But in between some local people came and started thrashing them," the woman said.

Cyber monitoring

Following the incident, police have alerted all the districts to keep a strict vigil on social media and rumour mongering.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the state police chief Saikia to ensure that the police force maintains vigilance to ensure peace.

Mob lynching is a primal instinct. No one knows why they are lynching, but all seem to be cast under a spell to kill. Tinat Atifa Masood, activist based in Guwahati

"I urge everyone to maintain peace and social harmony and not to fall prey to rumours. We won't spare anyone and strictest of punishment will be given to the culprits," the chief minister posted on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Assam government has decided to constitute a special unit for cyber monitoring to prevent attempts to spread rumours and to cause social disturbances.

The incident has caused an outrage, with thousands of people coming out on the streets of Guwahati demanding justice for the victims.

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Das, who sported dreadlocks, was a musician based in the state of Goa, and Nath was a Guwahati based businessman.

Gopal Chandra Das, the father of Das, said that his son always enjoyed outdoors.

"He travelled many places in the country. He loved to go to the hill stations. He would play music and wanted to do something, but destiny had other plans. I asked him not to go alone there (Karbi Anglong). But he went ahead," said the senior Das as he burst into tears ahead of the last rites of the two youths in Guwahati.

Mob violence spreading through social media has been on the rise in India. During the last two years, more than 10 such incidents have been reported from different parts of the country.

Last May, two youths were lynched in Assam's Nagaon district on the suspicion of stealing cows.

"Mob lynching is a primal instinct. No one knows why they are lynching, but all seem to be cast under a spell to kill," activist Tinat Atifa Masood told Al Jazeera.

"Over the last few years, the number of people lynched has gone up. A person is lynched for being different from 'the others' in their looks, culinary choices, their attire and their philosophy. And since the government of the day has been quiet on this issue, the ugly head of mob lynching is now a new normal in India," she said.</s>India finds itself in the grip of tech-fueled hysteria as two more men were killed because of false rumors—spread via WhatsApp—that they were kidnapping children.

The two men had reportedly stopped to ask for directions in Assam state when they were beaten to death by a mob of people.

According to the BBC, the two latest victims have been identified as Nilotpal Das, an audio engineer and Abijeet Nath, a digital artist—both residents of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam.

A video of the incident went viral over the weekend, and one man can be seen pleading for his life.

Police eventually arrested 16 people involved in the attack on the two men.

"When rumors start circulating on social media, it takes some time to stop them completely," senior Assam police official Mukesh Agarwal told the BBC, adding that police were watching various social media platforms to try to stop the spread of the messages.

Locals were citing a video that is being shared on WhatsApp that purportedly shows a child being abducted.

The problem is, the video is not what it seems to be.

The last segment of the unedited version of the video, which is a public service announcement filmed in Pakistan, show a man holding up a sign that explains the incident, reports the BBC.

Although the video initially spread via the messaging app, some regional media channels picked up the rumors, lending them an air of credibility.</s>Two men in India were lynched by a mob Friday when they stopped to ask for directions after false rumors of them being kidnappers were spread via instant messaging app WhatsApp — a vicious trend that has claimed an array of victims in the country in recent months.

Niltopal Das, 29, an audio engineer and Abijeet Nath, 30, a digital artist, were on their way from a picnic spot — where they had gone to see a waterfall — in the Indian state of Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, when they were violently attacked by a group of villagers accusing them of being “child lifters.”

The attack was the result of WhatsApp messages and calls warning people to be wary of two men fleeing the state in a black SUV with an abducted child in the back. One of the perpetrators recorded a video of the attack and posted it on Facebook, where it went viral.

In the video, Das was seen pleading for his life as a group of men kicked and repeatedly beat him with bamboo sticks.

“Don’t kill me, please don’t beat me… please let me go… believe me I am speaking the truth,” were Das’ last words before he was beaten to death and hanged from a tree nearby. His friend, Nath, also met with a similar fate.

After students and activists filled the streets of Guwahati, Assam, to protest against the senseless killings, police arrested 23 people suspected of having ties to the attack that led to the death of the two victims.

"I urge everyone to maintain peace and social harmony and not to fall prey to rumours. We won't spare anyone and strictest of punishment will be given to the culprits," Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted after the incident.

The latest incident is just the recent example of a string of lynching episodes that took place in various parts of India as the police struggle to contain the fake rumors of child abductions being spread via WhatsApp.

"When rumors start circulating on social media, it takes some time to stop them completely," senior Assam police official Mukesh Agarwal told BBC.

Locals across different states seemed to be targeting anyone who do not look familiar or were unable to speak the regional language. One of the reasons for this was a video that being circulated on the messaging app, which showed two men on a motorbike pulling up behind a group of children, picking one of them up and driving away. Without verifying the authenticity of the video, some of the regional news outlets ran it on their channels, lending further credibility to it.

However, it was later discovered the video in question wasn’t even recorded in India. It was actually an edited version of a child safety film from Pakistan, designed to create awareness. The extended version of the video showed a man holding up a sign at the end of the clip explaining the intended message. Instead of the social awareness message, the edited video being circulated talk about "kidnappers" arriving in the city with the aim of snatching children.

Six people were killed in Indian cities like Bangalore, Hosur and Hyderabad in similar rumor-fuelled mob attacks in the month of May.

Police across India are trying to debunk the baseless rumors by organizing public marches, announcing via loudspeakers and setting up social media control rooms to monitor posts, viral messages and videos.</s>Two young men were beaten to death in India on Saturday after residents suspected they were child kidnappers, the BBC and Aljazeera report. The men, Nilotpal Das, a 29-year-old audio engineer and Abijeet Nath, a 30-year-old digital artist, reportedly stopped in a remote village to ask for directions, but were attacked by a mob that believed them to be child traffickers.

At least 18 people have been arrested following the attack, a video of which went viral over the weekend. According to BBC, locals began attacking people who they don’t recognize or who don’t speak their language after a video spread on WhatsApp warning people of child abductors. The video is reportedly edited from a Pakistani child safety awareness film and cautions viewers that there are people coming to their city to kidnap children. The misinformation was also shared on local media networks.

What’s more, photos of dead children have also been shared through text messaging, according to Hyderabad deputy commissioner of police V. Satyanarayana. “These mischief mongers are intentionally circulating such messages to create panic in the minds of the public,” Satyanarayana told CNN.

Over the last two years, more than ten violent mob attacks have occurred around India as a result of misinformation spread on social media, according to Al Jazeera.

The Assam government has reportedly launched “special unit for cyber monitoring ” to curb the circulation of such rumors. And on Monday, the Hyderabad City Police posted a warning on Facebook, noting that people are spreading child abduction rumors on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. “Whereas such acts of spreading rumours by the aforesaid miscreants by using social media are causing a lot of disturbance to the public order of the Society and creating a serious threat to the lives of innocent persons,” the police force wrote.

WhatsApp is a crucial political tool in India, where the Facebook-owned service has about 250 million users. And while it serves as an important platform for activists, especially around elections, it has also served as a dangerous vehicle for rapidly distributing fake news. And, as is evident in the growing number of lynchings in the country, these misinformation campaigns can be deadly.</s>Two more men were beaten to death by mobs in India's northeastern state of Assam on suspicions of that they kidnapped children, in the latest of several killings fueled by social media rumors, police said Saturday.

The men from state capital Guwahati were traveling on holiday in the remote Karbi Anglong district late Friday night when they were confronted by a mob of some 300 villagers.

"The villagers, [who] suspected them to be child lifters, surrounded their SUV, dragged them out and started thrashing them," district police chief, V Siva Prasad Ganjala, said by phone. "One died on the scene, the other succumbed to his injuries later."

Footage of the lynching - captured by locals on their mobiles - shows the two men, aged between 25 to 30 years - pleading with their attackers to let them go and insisting that they were not criminals.

Ganjala said there had been no incidents of kidnapping or child trafficking in the area, but rumors that kidnappers were operating in the region had circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook in recent days.

Police registered a case of murder but had so far made no arrests.

Friday's killings came after six people were lynched by mobs in distant southern India last month following similar rumors about "child kidnapping gangs."

Police urged people against falling prey to rumors after a 52-year-old transgender woman was beaten to death in the southern city of Hyderabad at the end of May. She was also suspected child kidnapping.

A 42-year-old man was beaten to death in Nizamabad district, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Hyderabad, after a mob accused him as well of being a child kidnapper.

Authorities said the false messages that were being spread widely had led to mass panic, with mobs attacking beggars and strangers.

A dozen people have been arrested for circulating the videos, which show men hoisting a child from outside a home and mutilating an infant.

Police said most of the victims were not from the localities where they were killed.</s>Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das, both 30, were attacked by a group of men in the Karbi Anglong district of the northeastern state of Assam.

A rumor that child kidnappers were operating in the mainly rural area had been circulating on WhatsApp and Facebook groups for days, police told CNN. The black SUV the victims were using was forced to stop and Nath and Das were attacked, police said.

"Some people had seen the vehicle coming and a few people in the village said that the car might be being used to kidnap children. The two victims had stopped in the area. It was a normal visit," said Assam police Director General Kuldhar Saikia.

"The news spread just like that. The rumor was that some child abductors would come and take their child and they just though that this car was being used to lift children."

The two men were dead when police arrived at the scene on Friday, authorities said. Activists gathered on Monday in Assam's largest city, Guwahati, to demand justice for the victims. A graphic video of the incident, in which one of the victims is seen covered in blood and pleading for his life, went viral on social media over the weekend. Police also arrested 25 people for allegedly spreading the kidnapping rumors on social media, Saikia said. It is not the first time that false reports on WhatsApp and Facebook have fueled hysteria in India. Indian students take part in a protest march demanding action over the killing of two men in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam. In May, a transgender woman was killed and three others seriously injured in Hyderabad over rumors they were part of a child kidnapping gang One day before the transgender attack, a man with mental health problems was beaten up in Pahadishareef, also in southern Hyderabad, over the same rumor. Police confirmed there was no basis for those allegations. Hyderabad police were trying to stop the violence with their own social media campaign using the hashtags #HyderabadKillsRumors and #LetThisGoViral, along with workshops to educate the public.</s>In yet another reminder that fake news can actually have disastrous consequences, a misleading video being circulated on WhatsApp has led to the brutal killings of at least nine people across India.

The footage, which went viral on social media and was covered by the local news channels, showed two men supposedly abducting a child on a motorcycle. An accompanying message urged people to be cautious of kidnappers roaming the streets, causing widespread panic and chaos.

It has since been revealed the clip was not only false, it wasn’t even from India. According to reports, the widely circulated video had been edited from a Pakistani child safety film – but since when has logic stopped people from sharing baseless rumors?

The misinformation led to locals reportedly attacking strangers they didn’t recognize or those who didn’t speak their language. In fact, so far, a series of horrifying lynchings have claimed the lives of over half a dozen people who were just at a wrong place at a wrong time.

The first incident of a mob beating a man to death over the WhatsApp video was reported in April in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The victim was reportedly attacked after he was seen wandering the streets.

Things got even worse in May as six cases of such killings were reported to the police. A 55-year old woman was lynched in Tamil Nadu after she was seen giving sweets to local children, a man in Andhra Pradesh was fatally assaulted for not speaking local language Telugu, a man in Telengana was killed for allegedly entering a mango orchard at night while another man in the same state was lynched while visiting his relatives.

Similarly, a man in the city of Bangalore was beaten to death with cricket bats and a transgender woman was murdered in Hyderabad.

“Whereas such acts of spreading rumors by the aforesaid miscreants by using social media are causing a lot of disturbance to the public order of the Society and creating a serious threat to the lives of innocent persons,” the Hyderabad City Police stated on its Facebook page following the lynching.

The latest victims, identified as 30-year-old audio engineer Nilotpal Das and 29-year-old digital artist Abijeet Nath, were reportedly attacked in the state of Assam after they reportedly stopped to ask for directions in a black four-wheel drive. The two men were in the village for sightseeing, but ended up being chased and murdered by a village mob after being mistaken for child snatchers.

Their gruesome murders were filmed and shared on social media.

“Don't kill me ... Please don't beat me,” Das was seen pleading in the clip. “I am an Assamese … Please let me go.”

“There was a rumor that some child abductors had entered our village. This was shared via WhatsApp and Facebook. The message also read that one of the abductors had long hair,” said a villager. “The youth were stopped and asked about their whereabouts. But in between some local people came and started thrashing them.”

Although the local law enforcement agencies have reportedly been trying to spread awareness about the WhatsApp video being false, it doesn’t appear to have been working so far.

“When rumors start circulating on social media, it takes some time to stop them completely,” senior Assam police official Mukesh Agarwal told BBC.

Police have so far arrested over 30 people for their alleged involvement in the lynchings.

It is important to note WhatsApp, which has nearly 250 million active users in India, is widely used as tool to disseminate political messages in the country – particularly during the elections. It means people are more inclined to believe and share whatever material they receive without bothering to verify its credibility.</s>Guwahati: The Assam Police have arrested 16 people in connection with the lynching of two Guwahati-based youths in Karbi Anglong district by villagers who mistook them to be child abductors, authorities said on Sunday.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwala said that police were on the lookout for more people involved in the Friday evening incident.

Agarwala said that the situation in Dokmoka, where the killings took place, was under control.

"There was tension in the area following the incident but it is under control now," he said. "In four to five villages around Dokmoka, fake posts went viral on social media about 'xopadhara' or child abductors in the area. Preliminary investigation says that the people in the area suspected the two youths as child lifters and attacked them. "We appeal to people not to believe rumours and social media posts. We also appeal to the people to inform the police immediately if they find anyone spreading rumours and hate messages," Agarwala added. Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath were brutally killed by a mob near Kathilangso waterfall. The incident has been widely condemned.</s>A total of 23 people have been arrested for the lynching of two youth in Assam’s Karbi Anglong on Friday, while 26 more have been arrested under a crackdown launched against misuse of social media, police said on Monday.

A rumour about presence of some child snatchers was spread through social media by a section of people in and around Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong in past few days and the mob that lynched to death Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath on Friday mistook the duo to be child snatchers.

“While police have arrested 26 people since last night for posting hate messages on social media over the lynching of two youths in Karbi Anglong district by villagers, a total of 23 people have been caught for their involvement in lynching the two,” said Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwala.

Meanwhile, the Assam government has decided to to introduce a programme ‘Sanskar’ in all the development blocks and gaon panchayats very soon in view of incidents triggered by sheer ignorance and superstitions in the state in the last few months.

The programme will be replicated throughout the state on mission mode so that it can create a deterrent against superstitions and all its manifestations.

“Assam is known all over India for its unique hospitality and people coming from all over the country must feel an ambience of friendliness where ever they in the state,” said Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal while urging the authority concerned to frame modalities of the programme and a suitable roadmap should be created to implement it at all levels of the state so that any unfortunate situation does not arise in the state due to superstitions.

With the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council as the nodal agency, the programme will encompass all Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and all concerned government departments in a districts.

Moreover, all local bodies, mahila samiti, voluntary organizations, media persons, leading citizens, academicians, MPs and MLAs from ruling and opposition parties will be the stake holders of the programme. Social activists like Birubala Rabha, who has been fighting tirelessly against witch-hunting, will also be involved in the programme.</s>Indian police have arrested 16 people after two men became the latest victims of hysteria over WhatsApp rumours of child kidnappers.

The men had stopped to ask directions in north-eastern Assam state when they were beaten to death by a large mob.

Rumours of child kidnappings are spreading across India over WhatsApp, and have already led to the deaths of seven other people in the past month.

Police say it is proving hard to debunk the messages on social media.

The two latest victims have been identified as Nilotpal Das, an audio engineer and Abijeet Nath, a digital artist - both residents of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam.

Police say the pair were attacked when they stopped at a village to ask for directions. Residents reportedly believed they were "kidnappers" they had been warned about on WhatsApp.

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A video of the attack went viral over the weekend, where one of the men can be seen pleading for his life. On Sunday, students and activists filled the streets of Guwahati to protest against the killings.

What is fuelling the rumours?

People are citing a video that is being spread on WhatsApp that purportedly shows a child being abducted.

In Bangalore, where two people were killed last month, a local showed BBC correspondent Dan Johnson the video on his mobile phone. In it, two men on a motorcycle pull up to a group of children. One of them grabs a child and they ride off.

But the video is not real. It's not even from India. An unedited version of the video shows it is a child safety film from Pakistan, designed to create awareness. The last segment of the video, which shows one of the men holding up a sign that explains the incident, has been edited out in the version being spread on WhatsApp.

The video is accompanied by text messages that talk about "kidnappers" arriving in the city with the aim of snatching children.

Though it was initially spread via the messaging app, the panic was further fuelled when some regional media channels picked up the rumours, lending them credibility.

This has prompted locals to attack those who look unfamiliar or cannot speak the regional language.

What are the authorities doing about this?

"When rumours start circulating on social media, it takes some time to stop them completely," senior Assam police official Mukesh Agarwal told BBC Hindi's Dilip Kumar Sharma, adding that police were watching various social media sites to try to stop the spread of the messages.

Officials elsewhere in India have urged people not to believe messages linked to child abductions.

Last month, police in the southern city of Hyderabad marched alongside residents with loudspeakers chanting "don't believe the rumours".

In Tamil Nadu state, where a string of violent incidents has been reported in recent months, authorities have begun awareness drives to counter the rumours.

In other southern states like Karnataka, police have set up social media control rooms from where they monitor posts, viral messages and videos.

Police in Telangana have issued warnings and have also arrested people who circulated false video messages online.

So far, officials are yet to find any incidents of child abduction related to the spate of messages and videos being shared online.
Police in Assam arrest 18 people in connection of lynching two youths following rumors on WhatsApp and social media that they were child traffickers.