Unidentified man lynched to death by mob in UP town for being a 'Pakistani terrorist'

Rumours about the presence of a terrorist in their town resulted in a group of people in in Uttar Pradesh to take the law into their own hands and lynch a man, according to news reports.

The Indian Express has reported that an unidentified man was lynched to death in Maharajpur in Kanpur district, after people claimed that he was a Pakistani terrorist.

According to a  Navbharat Times report , a mob assaulted an unidentified man after questioning him about his background. The man was said to have been assaulted with sticks and sharp weapons by locals, as well as by people from nearby areas.

The Navbharat Times  reports that the mob was about to dump the man’s body in a river when the police arrived.

On seeing the police, the accused are said to have fled the scene.

However, nine persons have now been arrested in connection with the incident and charged with murder and rioting, the Indian Express report said.

While the attack in Uttar Pradesh was an extreme incident, there have been several examples in the recent past of people accusing persons as ’terrorists.'

In June, a Muslim man from Kolkata was fired from his job as he was sporting a beard after he returned from a Hajj pilgrimage. The man was quoted by DNA as saying that the managing director of the company he worked in said that he was threatening him, and he was later thrown out by security guards.