Two men, suspected of being child lifters, were lynched by unidentified people in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, police said here today.
Nilotpal Das (29), a sound engineer based in Mumbai and his friend Abhijeet Nath (30), a businessman had gone to the picnic spot Kangthilangso in Karbi Anglong last night to capture the sounds of nature, they said.
On their way back, the duo was stopped by some villagers at Panjuri, pulled out of the car and thrashed on suspicion of being child lifters, they added.
In a video of the incident circulated on social media, the duo can be seen pleading for their lives and trying to explain to the livid crowd that they were Assamese but to no avail.
As the police reached the spot, the seriously injured duo was rushed to a hospital but died on the way.
The police have launched a massive search operation to nab the culprits on the basis of the video. No arrests have been made so far, they said.
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The district administration authorities are camping in the area and holding talks with the villagers.
Both Das and Nath's parents are on their way to Karbi Anglong from Guwahati where they reside. The bodies will be handed over to them after conduting the post-mortem, police added.
Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Debabrata Saikia condemned the lynching and called it yet another instance of the state government's "utter failure" to maintain law and order.
Saikia also demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident.