One killed, four hurt in mob attack in Tripura

Agartala, June 28 (IANS) At least one mobile vendor from Uttar Pradesh was lynched on Thursday in Tripura and four others including a policeman were seriously injured when a mob attacked them suspecting them to be child lifters, police said.

Three petty vendors in a vehicle went to Murabari, a tribal dominated village in western Tripura, to sell garments. A large number of tribals attacked them, a police official said.

He said the mob chased them. When the vendors along with their driver took shelter in a security camp, the mob dragged them out and thrashed them even as the security personnel tried to save them.

The three vendors, the driver of their vehicle and a security man were seriously injured in the attack and shifted to a hospital in Agartala where Jahir Khureshi, 30, from Uttar Pradesh succumbed to his injuries, the official said.

Additional reinforcements of Tripura State Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force were rushed to the spot, 35 km north of Agartala to control the situation.

The security personnel used lathis and tear gas. Tension prevailed in the area where an 11-year-old boy had been brutally killed by two suspected minors on Tuesday.

Despite appeals by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Sukhla, mob violence and attacks on innocent people continues unabated since Wednesday.

Police said some youths attacked a middle-aged woman at Jogendra Nagar railway station on Wednesday night.

"When the woman with her two children arrived at the railway station, a group of people suspecting her to be a child trafficker thrashed her before she was rescued by police. While the woman was admitted to a hospital, her kids were sheltered in a government-run home," a police official said.

He said two government employees were also seriously injured when a group of people attacked them at Manu Bazar in southern Tripura on Thursday. The area is 130 km south of here.

Similar incidents of people being beaten, harassed and attacked by mobs have been reported from Amarpur (in southern Tripura), Bishalgarh, Arundhuti Nagar, Bodhjungnagar and Khowai (in Western Tripura) besides in capital Agartala.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Police on Thursday asked all mobile and Internet service providers to prohibit the services for 48 hours from Thursday afternoon to prevent the spread of rumours.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)