Apparantly, cattle are not good enough anymore, and our mysterious red carniverous mice have turned into 3" insects that terrorize poor Indian villages!
Indians blame mystery attacks on UFOs
August 13, 2002 Posted: 6:15 AM EDT (1015 GMT)
Staff and wires
SHANWA, India --
Panic-stricken Indian
villagers are blaming UFOs for
a spate of attacks that have
killed several people and
injured many others in Uttar
Pradesh state.
Villagers in this poor region say
as night falls, a flying sphere,
emitting red and blue lights,
hones in on their homes. In the
past week seven people have died
of unexplained injuries, while
many others have been burnt.
Ramji Pal, was one such fatality,
dying recently in Shanwa. His
neighbor, Raghuraj Pal told The Associated Press that "a
mysterious flying object attacked him in the night."
"His stomach was ripped open. He died two days later."
Many others have suffered scratches and surface wounds, which
they say were inflicted while they slept. In the village of Darra,
53-year-old Kalawati told AP she was attacked last week and
displayed blisters on her blackened forearms.
"It was like a big soccer ball with sparkling lights," said Kalawati,
who uses only one name. "It burned my skin."
"I can't sleep because of pain," she said.
Mass hysteria
But doctors have dismissed the stories
as mass hysteria.
"More often than not the victims have
unconsciously inflicted the symptoms
themselves," AP quoted Narrotam Lal, a
doctor at King George's Medical College
in Lucknow, the state capital, as saying.
Just last year, Indian police concluded
that a mysterious "Monkey Man," which
instilled terror in New Delhi, was simply
"mass hysteria" and a product of the
city's collective imagination.
A probe by forensic experts and
psychiatrists said the supposed half man
- half beast was a "mere figment of the
imagination of emotionally weak
people," The Times of India said,
quoting police sources.
Then, large colonies in the capital city
were gripped by fear of attacks after
dozens of people reported they were bitten or clawed by the
nocturnal "monkey man."
At least three people panicked and fell to their deaths from
buildings during the two-week saga because they were
convinced the attacker -- described varyingly as a monkey-like
creature with metallic claws and a cat with tawny, glowing eyes
-- was pursuing them.
Bugs or aliens?
But in this year's attack, police
have admitted that it could be
more than just a figment of the
imagination. For their part, they
have blamed bugs.
"It is a
three-and-a-half-inch-long
winged insect" that leaves rashes
and superficial wounds, Kavindra
P. Singh, a superintendent of
police, told the Press Trust of
India news agency.
Police drew this conclusion after residents of one village found
insects they had never seen before.
But villagers remain unconvinced.
In the most affected area, the Mirzapur district, 440 miles (710
km) southeast of New Delhi, people have stopped sleeping
outdoors despite sweltering heat and frequent power outages.
And as happened last year in the capital, villagers have formed
protection squads that patrol Shanwa, beating drums and
shouting slogans such as, "Everyone alert. Attackers beware."
Some accuse district officials of inaction and failure to capture
the "aliens."
One person died Thursday in nearby Sitapur when police fired
shots to disperse a 10,000-strong crowd demanding that
authorities capture the mysterious attackers.
"People just block the roads and attack the police for inaction
each time there's a death or injury," said Amrit Abhijat,
Mirzapur's district magistrate, who claims he has captured the
UFO on film.
At the height of the 'Monkey Man' panic in 2001, vigilante
groups armed with sticks patrolled New Delhi's streets at night
on the lookout for the creature while police announced a 50,000
rupee ($1,067) reward for information leading to its capture. |
