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Date Posted: 08:10:06 05/20/01 Sun
Author: SM78
Subject: Monkey-Man Hysteria Rages Unabated in New Delhi

I thought this article illustrative of the same hysteria that accompanies apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the faith healing rallies of Bennie Hinn, and the "candy clown" scare I lived through as a boy. What hysterias have you been caught up in?"

Monkey-man hysteria rages unabated in Indian capital
NEW DELHI, May 18 (AFP) -
Terrified citizens were turning to prayers as reports of attacks by a shadowy creature in residential districts of the Indian national capital pushed panic on borders of absurdity, police said Friday.

The little-known National Human Rights Council announced an 11-member team of Hindu priests would organise special prayers on Saturday to appease the elusive creature, widely described as the "man-monkey", which is on the prowl in the city's poorer sections.

"To rid the people of Delhi from the menace of this mysterious monkeyman, we will hold a freedom-from-monkeyman prayer tomorrow," the group said in a statement as police appealed for calm in the city, which has been in turmoil for the past week.

Council President Subash Gupta said prayers would be also offered to the Hindu monkey-god, Hanuman, who took an army of simians to help mythological Hindu warrior-king lord Rama into a terrible battle.

Two deaths and injuries to 60 city dwellers have been attributed to the panic caused so far by the sighting of the monkey-man, mostly in Delhi's overcrowded eastern and northern sections.

The police on Friday appealed for calm and warned residents against forming vigilante groups.

"We do not want people to take law in their hands and attack anyone they suspect to be the monkey-man," said Joint Police Commissioner Ajay Chadha.

The warning came after a band of armed men overnight beat up a man returning home and attacked the occupants of a car on suspicions that they were part of a gang that aided the creature.

Manik Ram, a shop-owner from the city's eastern sections, said he was woken by frantic cries for help by a neighbour who believed his son had been picked up by the mysterious creature.

"When I woke up I saw a shadow disappearing over the rooftop," said Ram.

"As I chased the shadow, I shouted to my neighbours who joined me. We ran down the street and caught a man."

According to Ram and his friends, the man was wearing black clothes and had a black helmet in his car, but later the police said it was a case of mistaken identity resulting from the panic simmering in the city.

"This was a man trying to enter his house quietly since he had come home very late," said Mahender Singh, a constable who rescued him.

"People should be more careful before giving in to panic like this," Singh added.

A physician was also collared by a mob but the police later rescued the frightened man before he suffered further injuries at the hands of his captors, the police said.

The city police have set up a special team to hunt for the creature after offering 50,000 rupees (1,063 dollars) for information leading to its apprehension.

Eyewitness accounts have described the creature as anything from a small man disguised as a black monkey with a helmet to a seven-foot (2.1-metre) beast with "illuminated green eyes and a huge metallic silver hand."

In other parts of the city, residents kept nocturnal vigils while others armed themselves with clubs, sticks and spears and knives and patrolled the streets, flouting police orders against vigilante groups.

But the fact that encounters have been reported in areas spreading over 30 kilometres has baffled the authorities, who are beginning to believe a group of men are playing a bizarre and bloody prank on the population of New Delhi.

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