UP face-scratcher scare fans hysteria, one dead

The mysterious flying object which is said to have attacked about 100 villagers so far has become a major law and order problem. Agitated crowds are gheraoing and attacking police stations out of sheer panic over not being adequately protected.

Today, the police had to fire on a mob which attacked Asandra police station in Barabanki. Two days earlier, the same police station had been gheraoed by the people late at night when they spotted a car in their village but could catch up with it. The police station staff was found missing.

After spreading terror in the eastern parts of the state, the muhnochwa seems to have reached the outskirts of the Prime Minister’s constituency and the areas nearby. In a majority of the villages in Barabanki district, people are staying awake through the night, taking turns to patrol the village. Television antennas have been removed on the suspicion that these may attract the mysterious object.

In Mohanlalganj, 20 km from Lucknow, a large insect has been caught by the locals and experts are analysing it. The state government has turned to IIT, Kanpur, for finding out the ‘‘truth’’ about the scare.

But at least one senior police officer is not waiting. ‘‘The three-to-six-inch-long insect has been brought from outside India,’’ Deputy Inspector General of Police K N D Dwivedi told reporters at Barabanki today. ‘‘Anti-national elements released these insects in the villages and cities at night,’’ he claimed, adding it had been developed through a special technology.

The DIG said the police had launched a drive to check suspicious people and night patrolling had been intensified. The police had recently claimed that an insect, which emits red light from its eyes and blue from its rear, was killed here.