Men also on target of 'ghost Barbers'

Amid the ongoing 'braid cutting' scare, an incident of alleged ''beard cutting'' was reported from an Uttar Pradesh village giving a new twist to the mystery. 

According to the police sources here, a man, who was a resident of Chichauli village in state's Rampur district, about 325 kilometres from here, alleged that someone cut his beard on Saturday night.

  The police, however, attributed the claim to the prevailing psychological fear among the people and appealed to them not to believe in the rumours.

  The scare led to the killing of a bird in state's Shahjahanpur district on Saturday, sources said. Reports said that some residents of Bagia locality in the town killed a bird, which looked like a bat, on suspicion that it had cut the braid of a woman in the area.

  Police sources said that so far over fifty incidents of alleged 'braid cutting' had been reported from different parts of the state in the past few days.   At least two women were allegedly assaulted and another was lynched to death by a mob in different parts of UP.

 The authorities have directed the district officials to crack down on rumour mongers. Police were keeping a close watch on the social networking sites also to find out if they were being used to spread rumours. 

An old woman, identified as Maan Devi, a resident of Mutnai village in Agra district, had allegedly been lynched by a mob at the village a few days back. The villagers alleged that the old dalit woman had cut the braids of some women. A case was registered in this connection and some people were also detained.