2 attacked in Manipur after rumours over child kidnapping, cannibalism

The two victims appear to be mentally unstable, say the police.

Two persons were injured in separate parts of a Manipur district when people attacked them after rumours about children being kidnapped and eaten, said police.

Police sources said there were six armed members in the gang hailing from Assam. They had rendered services as hired assassins as well. Four of them have escaped.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Hemant Pandey, Superintendent of Police in Kangpokpi district, said one attack occurred in Champhai village and another in Ikaijoging village on Tuesday evening.

Pandey said the two persons, whose identity he refused to reveal, appear to be mentally unstable and are under police guard in a hospital. “There have been rumours of cannibalism and presence of child lifters in Manipur for many days now,” Pandey said. No report of children missing has been filed in the last one month, he said.

The police have registered a case against unknown people for causing grievous injury to the two persons.

Five persons were beaten to death in Dhule district in Maharashtra on suspicion of being part of a child-kidnapping gang on Sunday--the latest in a series of attacks in several parts of India prompted by fake news and rumours.

Scores of incidents of locals thrashing “suspicious-looking” innocents have been reported from different states in the past month or so. Lynchings have been reported from West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha in the past two months.

. (This story has been updated to represent new facts.)