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22 Arrested After Lynching in India


Indian policemen detain activists of Asomiya Yuva Mancha (AYM) during a protest against the lynching of a man accused of rape in front of Nagaland House in Gauhati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Saturday, March 7, 2015.
Indian policemen detain activists of Asomiya Yuva Mancha (AYM) during a protest against the lynching of a man accused of rape in front of Nagaland House in Gauhati, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Saturday, March 7, 2015.

Police in India have arrested at least 22 people after a mob stormed a prison and lynched a rape suspect in northeastern Nagaland state.

Tension remained high Sunday after thousands of people attacked the prison in Dimapur to drag out a rape suspect, beat him to death and tie his body to a clock tower on Thursday.

Police said those arrested were charged with rioting. It was unclear if they were connected to the death of Syed Farid Khan, 35, who had been accused of raping a 19-year-old Naga tribal woman multiple times.

Khan was a Bengali-speaking Muslim, and his family has accused police of falsely implicating him in the rape to try to root out Muslims from Nagaland.

Nagaland's indigenous tribal groups have for years accused the growing population of Bengali-speaking Muslims from nearby Assam state and Bangladesh of illegally settling on their land and usurping resources.

The lunching comes days after the Indian government banned a BBC documentary about the fatal gang-rape in December 2012 of a young student in New Delhi that caused shock within India and around the world.

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