Mob lynches software engineer in Karnataka, injures three friends

This photo taken on June 10, 2018, shows protesters demanding the arrest of people involved in the killing of two men in Karbi Anglong district, Guwahati. Pic/AFP

A long drive on his weekly day off along with a relative and friends proved to be deadly for Mohammad Azam, a software engineer, who was beaten to death by a mob in Karnataka's Bidar district on Friday on suspicion of being a child lifter.

A pall of gloom has gripped the house of Azam, 28, in Errakunta in the old city of Hyderabad. Azam's brother Mohammad Akram urged the Telangana government to take up the issue with the Karnataka government for a proper investigation. He recalled that their cousin Noor Mohammad, Salham, Mohammad Salman and another friend came to meet Azam on Friday. "They left the house around 11 am. We did not know that they were going out of the city," said Akram. Relatives of Azam say they stopped at a hamlet. Salham saw some kids returning from a school. As he was carrying chocolates, he offered it to them.

When some people saw strangers offering chocolates to children, they mistook them to be child lifters. They started questioning them. Sensing trouble, the group left. At Murki, a mob chased the car and forced it to stop. The mob dragged out the occupants and started beating them. After some time, police rushed to the spot and dispersed the mob.

Recent incidents

• On July 12, a young woman was thrashed by locals on suspicion of being a child-lifter before police rescued her, at Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
• Five people were recently killed in North Maharashtra's Dhule district over child-lifting rumors on social media.

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