A renowned missionary along with his wife and a lecturer of a college were brutally assaulted on May 9 by a mob in Golaghat district.
According to Nagaland Christian Ministries Fellowship (NCMF) publicity in-charge, the incident reportedly took place in between Golaghat and Dergaon on May 9, around 11 a.m. NCMF said that the victims were returning to Dimapur after attending a revival meeting. The missionary who was driving the vehicle, unfortunately lost control and hit a bamboo fence and a small mango tree.
Though no one was injured in the incident, the onlookers turned blind-eye and a mob began to gather around them instead of helping the victims.
NCMF said that the mob began to beat up the lecturer who was at the back seat. The mob also pulled out the missionary and his wife and locked them up in separate rooms and threatened to kill them, they alleged.
While they were verbally abusing the missionary and his wife “insulting Nagas”, NCMF said one of them hit the lady on her ribs several times with a “knife butt”.
NCMF alleged that the mob took away all their belongings including mobile phones, laptop, camera and were asked to pay Rs. 20000. However, they paid a fine of Rs.5000 (Five Thousand) to the “fence owner for slamming down the small mango tree”.
Later, Assam police arrived and took victims to one of the police station. NCMF further alleged that some of the policemen, after the relatives arrived, had asked money from them for “Chai Pani…”
NCMF has vehemently condemned the barbaric incident and appealed to the state government to look into such issues and sort out the possibilities of alternate road connectivity to avoid traveling via Assam.