NEW
DELHI, Aug. 18 (IslamOnline) - For the past two weeks, hundreds of
people acorss hundreds of kilometers in the northern Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh have experienced strange attacks by objects. Over a
hundred have come to the authorities complaining and seeking
protection.
In
a country where idols are seen drinking milk, mysterious monkeys
attack people in the national capital until the police say they will
arrest anyone spreading this "rumour," and fake godmen come
up with magical tricks to dupe a gullible population, this new
phenomenon was not startling to say the least.
But
what is startling indeed is that sleuths of the respectable
Intelligence Bureau (IB) have come up with a conclusion that it is an
"extra-terrestial" (ET) body which has strayed into our
world and is attacking people in a mysterious way. The people call it
"muhnochwa" (face attacker).
The
IB sleuths have obtained five visuals of this creature on video tapes.
Three of these were recorded by the team of intelligence people who
were deputed to investigate this issue.
In
their view, the scare was not without substance. They do not rule out
the possibility of the presence of an ET with electro-magnetic effect
in at least three per cent of the reported cases.
IB
people started from the clues of a video tape provided by the wife of
a lawyer in Mirzapur and another picture recorded by a resident in
Sitapur. These have a flash of light speeding through one end of the
lens to another within a second. Consequently an IB team reached
Sitapur on August 7 and set up an improvised observatory.
A
base of a mixer-grinder was fitted with lights of the colors that the
victims had narrated before the team varying from orange, yellow and
green to the most common red and blue combination. The apparatus was
put at a height in total darkness.
The
idea behind the exercise was that the ET may take note of something
resembling it and might approach it. And it did. At 1:05 am a flash of
light neared the apparatus. "It was like the photocopier top
plate with its sharp light while taking impressions," revealed a
member of the IB team while drawing a parallel, according to a report
on the Times of India website, Sunday, August 18.
The
team, comprising forensic experts, serologists, medico-legal experts,
electronic engineers and physicists equipped with night vision
devices, zero light video cameras and telescopes apart from other
gadgetry, was witness to the "light" which was seen thrice.
It descended close to the handmade device and then disappeared. The
video clipping has a flash of light running across the screen but
nothing more.
The
team of IB experts also conducted a study by filling up a
questionnaire on the basis of the experience of the victims from the
cities of Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Bara
Banki, Rae Bareli, Lucknow and Sitapur.
Out
of a sample study of 100 injured victims, 10 were found to be victims
of an insect bite or scratch. Another 10 suffered the injuries
indirectly (like bruises while running after a scare). The remaining
had one or more of the following four common factors: experiencing
electric shock, seeing sharp light, feeling hard oval object.
Out
of 80 people, 65 were found to have suffered physical injuries and
there were three who tried to overpower the ET. "All the three
had suffered hundreds of scars, as if caused by a blade, on the palm
and it was inexplicable by any team member," said an expert who
examined the injuries adding that this was what raised possibilities
of an ET being out there.
But
there is still a long way to go before these experts could come up
with anything conclusive on the muhnochwa scare.
Rationalists,
however, have pooh-poohed the idea. They say that such phenomena may
be caused by atmospheric changes or man-made mischief. Doctors say
such stories are nothing but mass hysteria.
While
the Indian agencies were yet to swing into action, foreign research
agencies have reportedly visited affected areas, met victims and
collected necessary data
