Thousands of furious Indians swarmed the streets to publicly - and violently - kill a man who was suspected of being a rapist.
The pictures have emerged after they broke into a prison, kidnapped the man, stripped him naked and mercilessly beat him to death in front of a frenzied crowd.A 25-year-old believed to be part of the mob was injured when police opened fire and he later died in hospital.
Taking justice into their own hands, the angry crowd was a terrifying portrayal of the country's increasingly aggressive stance against sexual violence.
Graphic pictures after the cut.......
It overpowered security at the Central Jail in the city of Dimapur and grabbed the man who apparently raped a female student multiple times last month.
According to local media reports, he died while being dragged four miles through the streets as people beat and pelted him with stones. He has been identified as a 35-year-old used car trader, according to The Indian Express.
The man allegedly raped a student from a local women's college on February 24, and he was arrested a day later.
'A mass protest rally against the rape was held at Dimapur this morning after which students and angry people forced into the district jail and managed to pull out the accused,' the Press Trust of India news agency said.
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| LARGE MOBIt has been reported the crowd tore down two gates before dragging him to the town's clock tower. |
It's said they also set fire to homes and shops in an area where the suspect ran his business.
Several people were injured when police used batons and opened fire, while officers were hurt when the mob pelted them with stones in Nagaland state in northeast India. The police later removed the man's body.
'The situation is very tense,' town police superintendent Meren Jamir told the Hindustan Times. 'We are trying our very best to restore order.'
India is already in midst of a raging controversy over a government order to ban the broadcast of a documentary about the December 2012 gang-rape of a young student.
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| THE MOB |
The incident, which sparked outrage both in India and around the world, highlighted the frightening level of violence against women in the country.
The Indian government has also asked YouTube to block access to the documentary, claiming that its broadcast violated certain key agreements with the filmmaker.
But the Delhi gang-rape victim's father has called on all countrymen to watch the documentary, which showed his daughter's killer blaming the student for 'being out at night'.
India's Daughter was described as the 'bitter truth' by the young woman's father after it quoted the views of her rapist Mukesh Singh, who is on death row over the 2012 attack.
The film by award-winning Briton Leslee Udwin, who produced 1999 indie hit East is East, was due to air on the BBC and Indian news channel NDTV to mark International Women's Day this Sunday.
But it was dropped by NDTV following the ban and the BBC brought forward its screening to last night, citing a strong public interest.
Today India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh vowed there would be consequences for the Corporation, telling NDTV: 'We had asked to not release the documentary but BBC still released it.
'We will investigate and the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) will take action accordingly. The conditions have been breached so action will be taken accordingly. I won't comment any further.'
The hour-long documentary aired as part of the long-running Storyville series on BBC Four, and is believed to have been accessed by many in India online.
Today the victim's family showed their support for the film, saying the rapist's comments had to be be exposed because they expressed how many people still think.
The victim's father, who is named in the documentary but kept anonymous by some international news agencies, told NDTV the film was 'the bitter truth'.
'Everyone should watch the film,' he said. 'If a man can speak like that in jail, imagine what he would say if he was walking free?'
The victim's mother added she did not object to the ban but believed Singh's views were widespread in India.
'I don't care what the government does, bans the film, doesn't ban the film, the only thing I know is that nobody is afraid,' she said. 'It is not only Mukesh who thinks like this.'
Mukesh Singh was one of five men convicted over the rape and murder of the physiotherapy student, who was lured aboard a bus along with a friend in December 2012.
Once inside, bus driver Singh, his brother Ram, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, 20, bus cleaner Akshay Thakur, 28, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, 19, and an unnamed teenager launched the attack.
The attackers beat her friend and took turns raping the woman. They penetrated her with a rod, leaving severe internal injuries that caused her death.
She died a fortnight later after suffering terrible injuries to her abdomen, genitals and intestines.
Her death prompted mass protests and led to speedier trials and tougher penalties for rape.
Yet many still hold the firm belief that women are subservient - illustrated by convict Singh, who told the documentary his victim would still be alive if she had not objected.
'When being raped, she shouldn't fight back,' he said. 'She should just be silent and allow the rape... Then they'd have dropped her off after "doing her", and only hit [her friend] the boy.'
He claimed 'you can't clap with one hand - it takes two' and insisted: 'A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night.
'A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal.
'Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.'
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