2018 Karbi Anglong lynching was a violent incident of mob lynching that took place in

Karbi Anglong Karbi may refer to: Places * Karbi, Armenia * Karbi Anglong Plateau, an extension of the Indian Plate in Assam, India * Karbi Anglong district, a district of Assam, north-eastern India Other uses * Karbi people, an ethnic group of North-e ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

, in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on 8 June 2018.

Fake news

Fake news Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...

spread via

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

have been named as the cause of the

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

s of Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath. The rumors said that child lifters were in the area.

Incident

The incident took place in the backdrop of widespread public rumours over rising

child trafficking Trafficking of children, also known as child trafficking, is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of a child" for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and ...

and the spate of killings known as the Indian WhatsApp lynchings. A mob of about 250 people attacked two men under suspicion of child trafficking and beat the two to death in a case of mistaken identity.

Arrests

As of 21 June 2018, 36 people had been arrested.

References

{{Reflist 2018 crimes in India June 2018 in India Karbi Anglong district Lynching deaths in India 2018 murders in India Riots and civil disorder in Assam Vigilantism 2010s in Assam WhatsApp Cybercrime in India Moral panic Fake news in India Mass media-related controversies in India