By Biswajyoti Das
GUWAHATI, India, March 6 (Reuters) - A mob of several
thousand people broke into a high-security prison in India,
dragged out a rape suspect and killed him, officials said on
Friday, adding that police had to impose a curfew to restore
order.
Rape has been a particularly emotive crime in India since
2012, when a student was raped and tortured on a bus in New
Delhi and later died. The government has banned a documentary
about that attack, re-igniting debate about gender
inequality.
The mob attacked the prison late on Thursday in the
northeastern state of Nagaland.
The man, a 35-year-old Muslim businessman accused of raping
a woman, was dragged out and hauled naked through the streets
and beaten to death.
"Security personnel at the jail were overpowered by the
mob," said the state's chief minister, T.R.Zeliang.
One person was killed and several injured when police fired
on the mob.
A curfew was imposed in the district late on Thursday and
remained in force on Friday as the situation was "still tense",
district police chief Meren Jamir told Reuters.
Most people in Nagaland are Christian.
Violence against women is widespread in India where a rape
is reported on average every 21 minutes. Acid attacks, domestic
violence and molestation are also common.
There were 309,546 crimes against women reported to police
in 2013, up from 244,270 the previous year, according to the
National Crime Records Bureau. These include rape, kidnapping,
sexual harassment and molestation.
(Editing by Aditya Kalra and Robert Birsel)
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