India arrests 15 over latest ‘child abduction’ lynchings

NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested 15 men after the latest in a spate of lynchings incited by rumours spread on WhatsApp of strangers abducting children, an officer said on Sunday.

A mob in a mainly tribal area of the northeastern state of Assam pulled two men out of their car on Friday night and beat them to death before police could arrive. A video on YouTube shows the badly bruised and bleeding men pleading for their lives.

The two friends, residents of Guwahati city in the state, were returning from a picnic spot. "We have arrested 15 persons. We have also zeroed in on a couple of people who recorded and uploaded the video," senior state police official Mukesh Agrawal told AFP.

"The villagers got suspicious of the strangers as for the last three or four days messages were going around on WhatsApp, as well as through word of mouth, about child lifters roaming the area," the officer said.