On the night of July 9, a group of about 20 men groped and stripped a teenaged girl attending a birthday party at a pub in Guwahati.

A local news channel, News Live, whose studio is nearby, recorded the incident and broadcast it. The video went viral on the Internet after the channel posted it on YouTube, shocking the nation. (The original video has been removed from You Tube)

The mob molested the girl for more than 30 minutes until passersby and police rescued her. One of them was a journalist, Mukul Kalita, editor of Assamese-language daily Ajir Asom.

According to the police, 11 of the offenders have been identified and four arrested. Police have been unable to find the prime accused, Amar Jyoti Kalita. An employee of state run IT-agency AMTRON, Kalita has been suspended, according to media reports. One of the accused works as a sweeper at Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) while another works for a water tanker service agency.

The story has prompted plenty of outrage about the behaviour of the men, but it also has raised an age-old question about the press. When, if ever, should a journalist abandon the observer’s role and become part of the story? Many people said News Live’s crew failed to live up to its human obligations and was only interested in ratings.

The episode was captured by a News Live employee who was on the spot.  In a television interview, meanwhile, the victim appealed to the government and police to arrest the culprits and punish them.

News Live’s reporter, Dipya Bordoloi, while speaking to other media, said that the mob was not listening to anyone, and “it was like a gang rape.” He says he called the police immediately on reaching the spot, but they took about 20 minutes to reach.

Guwahati City Senior Superintendent of Police Apurba Jiban Barua  said it was the proprietor of the Gateway Grandeur hotel who called the police, and that he received no media calls.

“The police received a call at 10.10 p.m. from a nearby hotel owner and reached the spot within five minutes,” he said. “[Officer] Dibash Chandan Nath was on the spot even before the call was made, and along with Mukul Kalita, rescued the girl,” he added. Barua also said police were trying to identify and arrest the other perpetrators.

People vented their anger on Twitter, criticising the channel for not concealing the victim’s face. People are also angry that the reporter and the cameraman continued to shoot footage but did not try to stop the mob. Many users have shared Amar Jyoti Kalita’s and the other molesters’ photos on Facebook.

News Live’s managing editor Syed Zarir Hussain defended his channel’s actions in an interview to a news channel, saying had the video not been shot, police would not have been able to identify the molesters. Reuters tried to reach the editor-in-chief of the channel, Atanu Bhuyan, who did not respond to email messages.

According to police superintendent Barua, the victim and a few of her friends went to the pub Club Mint to celebrate one of their birthdays. At the pub, they got into a scuffle with the bartenders over payment. When they left, one of the girls attacked a boy, following which a mob gathered. The victim’s friends fled, but the mob caught one of the other girls and assaulted her.

This incident comes on the heels of a pregnant Congress MLA (member of legislative assembly, for readers unfamiliar with India’s legislative system) Rumi Nath and her second husband being thrashed by a mob in the Assamese town of Karimganj. The mob was allegedly angry with Nath for marrying a second person without divorcing her first husband.

In November 2007, a woman was stripped and thrashed by a local businessman in Guwahati. This was followed by a Mizo girl being beaten in Guwahati in December 2010 while she was asking for directions. The mob in this case, mainly women, accused the girl of being drunk.

A report by the National Crime Records Bureau ranks Assam second in the category of crime committed against women in 2011 in India. The report indicates that there were 1,700 cases of rape, 3,192 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and more than 5,000 cases of domestic violence in the state (PDF link).

“Such incidents are shameful. It only shows the degrading morality of our society,” Mridula Saharia, former chairwoman of the Assam State Commission for Women, told Reuters.

Whether she was drinking at a bar is irrelevant, she said. “Drinking may be harmful and bad, but that does not give anyone the right to outrage the modesty of a woman. And why can’t women party? These offenders must be arrested and brought to justice.”

India has seen a rise in crime against women, with New Delhi being unofficially tagged as the rape capital of India. Domestic violence, dowry deaths, honour killings are widely reported. A recent U.N. report ranked India as the worst G20 country to be a woman.

However, women in northeast India have traditionally enjoyed respect and equality in a predominantly patriarchal society. Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan in his recent avatar as a television anchor praised the people of the Northeast for their treatment of women in his popular show “Satyamev Jayate“.

With the July 9 incident in Guwahati, the question grows ever more urgent: what is the burden that rests on the people to treat their fellow citizens better — and at which point do journalists begin to share that burden through intervention?

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Anyone looking for stories of outrages committed against women in India this month doesn’t need to look far. Just after an attack on a woman in the northeast city of Guwahati, and a plea by an Islamist group in Jammu & Kashmir for female tourists to dress more conservatively, a group of village elders in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh has released some new rules to ensure that women stay safe. The only loss they’ll suffer is individual freedom:

- Women cannot use mobile phones in public

- Women under the age of 40 cannot go outside without a male relative to accompany them.

- Women should cover their heads in public.

- Village boys cannot play songs or music on their mobile phones in public.

The village elders, known as a khap panchayat, took the actions, they said, to prevent sexual harassment. The result, of course, is to punish women pre-emptively by restricting their liberties in the name of protecting them from men who cannot be trusted to restrain themselves.

The Uttar Pradesh government said that the panchayat has no legal authority to enforce such rules, and that people should report attempts to do so. When the police tried to step in, a crowd of people beat them up.

On the same day, a row over attending classes in hijab (headscarf) sprung up in Mangalore when some female students belonging to the Muslim community boycotted classes in Sri Ramkunjeshwara First Grade College, Ramkunja. They were protesting the management’s decision to ban the hijab as a part of their dress code.

The management argued that the institution does not permit students to dress according to their faith. The college administration said it told parents and students about the dress code when they applied, so they should know about the rules already.

Countries that have taken similar action, such as France and the Netherlands, have argued that veils and other kinds of primarily Islamic clothing are repressive for women. But wouldn’t a progressive government allow people to choose what they want to wear? In India, this seems like a priority, given the country’s promise of equal rights to citizens regardless of their religion.

People who assign themselves the protectors of other people’s morality seem to always find a way to enforce their will on women. The idea is that you must:

- restrict their movements so they don’t harm themselves

- restrict their freedom to be equal to men lest they arouse the passions that men are powerless to control

The conclusion is always the same: it’s the woman’s fault. Look at the Guwahati incident, at the claims that surfaced here and there that if the victim weren’t drinking in a bar and doing other morally suspect things, this wouldn’t have happened.

Nobody in India, or many other countries for that matter, would have said this about a man. Where does that leave a country like ours? How do you change the thinking of millions of people? The most common methods so far — legislation, shouting about it online, protests — don’t seem to have much effect. Now what, India?

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1 of 10. A man carries belongings from his shop destroyed by shelling from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in downtown Aleppo August 1, 2012.

ALEPPO, Syria | Thu Aug 2, 2012 1:12am EDT

ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad told his troops on Wednesday that their battle against rebels would decide Syria's fate, but his written message gave no clues to his whereabouts two weeks after a bomb attack on his inner circle.

In Aleppo, rebel fighters seized three police stations while fighting the army for control of a strategically important district. Explosions could be heard and helicopter gunships cruised the skies as troops tried to push the rebels out of the northern city and preserve one of Assad's main centers of power.

Assad has not spoken in public since the bombing in Damascus on July 18 killed four of his close security aides, although he has appeared in recorded clips on television. His latest remarks appeared in the military's magazine to mark armed forces day.

"The fate of our people and our nation, past, present and future, depends on this battle," said Assad, whose low public profile suggests acute concern about his safety since the bombing in which his brother-in-law died.

In confronting "terrorist criminal gangs" - the government's usual term for the rebels - the army had proved it had "the steely resolve and conscience and that you are the trustees of the people's values", the 46-year-old president declared.

Earlier, at least 10 volleys of shells lit up the sky over Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, and drowned out the Islamic call to prayer. Carloads of rebels shouting "God is great" sped off towards the fighting. Helicopters could be seen firing over the city.

The World Food Programme said it was sending emergency food supplies to Aleppo to tackle a worsening humanitarian situation.

Syria's civil war has intensified since the July 18 bombing, with fighting engulfing Damascus and Aleppo for the first time in the 17-month-old uprising against Assad family rule.

The two cities are crucial prizes for both sides in an increasingly brutal struggle that has eluded all attempts at a diplomatic solution and risks igniting a wider conflagration.

Internet video footage and witness accounts indicate that rebels have carried out summary executions in and around Aleppo in much the same way as Assad's forces have been accused of acting in Damascus, where the army has largely regained control.

One video shows four men identified as members of the pro-Assad Shabbiha militia being led down a flight of stairs, lined up against a wall and shot in a hail of rifle fire as onlookers shouted "Allahu akbar (God is greatest)".

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the killings, which he called a massacre, "confirms human rights violations are taking place on both sides".

In another video, a cameraman filmed the bodies of about 15 men at a police station. One rebel fired at the corpse of the station commander, blowing his head off. In both cases, the content of the footage could not immediately be verified.

In the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, a rebel told how his men had executed a captured sniper, shooting him dead after an impromptu "trial" conducted at an already prepared graveside.

"We took him right to his grave and, after hearing the witnesses' statements, we shot him dead," the fighter said.

STREET FIGHTING MEN

Sporadic fighting sputtered on in the bitterly contested Salaheddine district in the southwest of Aleppo, part of a rebel-held arc stretching to the northeast of the city.

Neither side was in full control, despite an army statement at the weekend that it had driven insurgents from the district, now a ghost town with closed shops and empty streets.

On Al-Sharqeya Street, residents and shop owners looked in awe at the damage. Some rifled through what was left of their buildings. Huge piles of concrete, and twisted reinforced metal intertwined in the dust.

"I saw death before my eyes," said Abu Ahmed who was leaving his home. "I was hiding in the alleyway of my building when I heard the whizz of the artillery. Look at my street now."

They said the damage was caused by helicopter fire targeting a rebel brigade based in a school. It missed the school and hit the residential buildings instead.

"This dog Assad and his men are so blind they can't even target a brigade properly," said Abu Ahmed, waving a plastic bag with his belongings inside.

Syrian state television said on Wednesday the army was pursuing remaining "terrorists" in one Aleppo district and had killed several, including foreign Arab fighters.

Some foreign fighters, including militant Islamists, have joined the battle against Assad, who often accuses outside powers of financing and arming the insurgents.

An NBC News report said the rebels have acquired nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles delivered via neighboring Turkey. The missiles could erode the military's air supremacy if rebels are able to hit its helicopters and warplanes.

The rebels are also continuing to strike effectively against Assad's ground forces. In the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus, residents said rebel fighters managed to seize two tanks from the army during fierce afternoon clashes.

Assad's forces have retaken most Damascus districts from the rebels, but fighting has continued intermittently in the south and residents report army shelling from Qassioun mountains overlooking the center of the city.

FOOD, FUEL SHORT

Aleppo, a commercial hub with a historic Old City, had long stayed aloof from the uprising, but many of its 2.5 million residents are now caught up in battle zones, facing shortages of food, fuel, water and cooking gas. Thousands have fled.

"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating in Aleppo and food needs are growing rapidly," the World Food Programme said.

The U.N. agency said it had sent food aid for 28,000 people to the city, where hospitals and makeshift clinics can barely cope with casualties after more than a week of combat.

Lightly armed insurgents are battling a well-equipped army that has overwhelming superiority on paper, but rebels have nonetheless managed to capture some tanks and heavy weapons, the United Nations observer mission in Syria has confirmed.

The rebels, however, are united mostly by loathing of Assad, and have failed to come together despite pressure from the West, Turkey and Sunni-ruled Arab states who back their cause.

Another fissure in the opposition opened up on Tuesday when exiled Syrian activists announced a new alliance with plans to form a transitional government, challenging the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group set up last year.

The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army criticized the new political coalition, calling its leaders opportunists seeking to divide the opposition and benefit from the rebels' gains.

Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, is strongly supported by Iran and to a degree by Iraq's Shi'ite-led government. China and Russia have protected him in the U.N. Security Council from measures that could lead to sanctions.

The U.N. General Assembly said on Tuesday it would discuss Syria this week and diplomats say it is likely to vote on a Saudi-drafted resolution that condemns the Security Council for failing to take action against Damascus.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, visiting Jerusalem, said he hoped Assad would step down and "we can begin the transition to a democratic process there for the Syrian people".

(Additional reporting by Hadeel Al Shalchi in Aleppo, Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp)

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