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. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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.
Police in Assam arrest 18 people in connection of lynching two youths following rumors on WhatsApp and social media that they were child traffickers.