She asked cops for help, they threw her to the mob: Tanzanian girl's friend
Bengaluru: The 3,000 strong African student community has taken umbrage at state home minister G. Parameshwar’s claim on Thursday that the 21-year-old girl student of Acharya Institute was ‘NOT’ stripped or paraded naked around by the mob, and the fact that he went public with her name.
Read: Bengaluru: Mob strips Tanzanian girl, torches her car as police watch
Asked why he revealed the named of the victim at the press conference, Parameshwar said, “The media revealed the name first. So, I don’t see anything wrong in revealing the name.”
He also denied that the girl was prevented from engaging a lawyer, although reporters overheard the police saying to a local lawyer not to take the case.
Read: Bengaluru cops ‘rescued’ drivers, left stripped Tanzanian girl to mob’s mercy
Linah is a fourth year Architecture student at the Acharya Institute. Aziz Feif, one of the five victims who was thrashed by the mob was an eye-witness as his friend Linah was stripped off her clothes and repeatedly beaten as she sat terrified, in a crouched position on the pavement, crying and desperately trying to cover her upper body which was completely exposed, took issue over the Home Minister saying she had not been stripped or paraded naked.
Read: Tanzanian student assault: Have given factual report to EAM, says Siddaramaiah
“Linah did not have anything on her upper body, not even an inner-wear, which the mob had torn off. Her tops were pulled off and ripped by the mob. She was cowering, covering her modesty only with her arms. They even kicked her on her head when she was on the ground,” said Feif, a fellow student from Tanzania.
Read: Iranian boy rescued assault victim: Dr G Parameshwar
“She was traumatized and was crying bitterly for help, and was being pushed and dragged here and there as they beat her and all of us. As all this was going on, they went and torched our car. When a man known to us offered Linah a shirt, which I remember was blue in colour, even the shirt was snatched away and that man was beaten up by the mob," he said. “This went on and on. And there were two policemen who stood there and watched it all, without doing anything. Linah appealed to them to help, and one of the cops just threw us back into the crowd," Feif said, adding "we recognized him when we went to the Sapthagiri Hospital for medical examination on Wednesday."
Read: Tanzanian girl assault: Xenophobia reigns in Bengaluru’s Hesaraghatta
Aziz recounted how she even ran to a BMTC bus that had slowed down, but the driver did not move the bus and few passengers pushed her down with mob too pulling her from outside. "She was again at the mercy of the mob," he said.
" She then ran inside a shop and the shutters were downed, and even then the mob followed her inside the shop," said Aziz Feif asking, "How can the home minister say my friend was not stripped?"
“There must have been at least 30 men who hit us with stones, punched, kicked and beat us real bad, said Feif, a second year B.Com student from Acharya Institute. The other students who were present at the time of incident along with Linah were Salum N. Salum, 22, a B.Com student and Earnest Zakile, 24, a third year B. Com student and Jamal Ibrahim alias Hashim who was driving the Wagon R car. "They even attacked another friend of ours who came to help us," says Feif of Brighton 24, a second year MBA student and a friend of group who reached the spot on his bike, who was assaulted by the mob.
