 Seven robbers were battered to death by an angry mob when they tried to loot a passenger bus at Kadamtala, 90 km from Calcutta, in broad daylight. West Bengal Director General of Police Shyamal Dutta said that policemen rushed to the spot on hearing about the highway heist but even the men in uniform could not stop villagers and commuters from killing the badly-outnumbered criminals with iron rods.
| I'm just guessing, but what I'm guessing is that the outnumbered criminals were known local layabouts and ruffians... |
| I'm just glad the Metro riders in DC don't usually board the bus while carrying iron rods. As far as I know. |
But there was nothing unusual about last week's lynching. Blood thirsty mobs baying for bandits' blood are becoming a common feature of the West Bengal countryside.
| Still guessing, but I'd guess that, having worked to achieve a bit of prosperity, the locals aren't happy at the idea of the layabouts trying to take it away from them... |
| How unreasonably unsocialist of them ... |
Nearly 100 criminals have been lynched to death in various such incidents in 2004. In the last few years, mob action has claimed more lives in the state than in any other province, according to National Crime Records Bureau statistics.
| ... and I'd also guess that the record of the local cops at catching the layabouts and hard boyz, and of the local courts in putting them away, isn't too stellar... |
Last week, a gang of criminals boarded the bus brandishing revolvers and shotguns in North 24 Parganas district. When the passengers raised an alarm, the robbers fired in the air. But the driver stopped the bus in a busy rural market and pleaded for help. Soon hundreds of villagers pounced on the bandits. All the seven were killed on the spot even as the police helplessly watched the bloody scene. |