Delhi protests over ‘sex attack’ on seven-year-old girl
2 March Sky News, BBC
Hundreds of protesters have clashed with police after reports that a
seven year old girl has been raped at a government school in northwest
Delhi.The Times of India newspaper said the attack had occurred in the
Mangolpuri area of the capital.
The girl's parents informed police after the injured child was taken
to hospital.Dr Sanjay Kumar, who helped treat the girl, said she had
injuries consistent with rape.Angry mobs gathered at the hospital and
threw stones at a nearby bus, shattering its windows.Protesters hurled
stones at police, who had cordoned off the road and used batons to break
up the demonstration.After several hours the crowd dispersed.The
protesters were angry over the assault on the little girl and were
demanding that police act against the culprit,” a police official said.
A Delhi police spokesman said police had registered a rape case and
were questioning teachers and security guards at the facility, run by
the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).Delhi chief minister Sheila
Dikshit called the attack “shameful”.Rape inside a school is a shocking
incident.
It is shameful that it happened,” she said.India has been gripped in
recent months by a national debate over the treatment of women and girls
and their safety.Last month three sisters, aged six, nine and 11 were
raped and murdered before their bodies were dropped in a village well.
In December a 23 year old medical student was gang raped and attacked
on a bus in Delhi. She died 13 days later after being flown to a
hospital in Singapore.Six men, including a 17 year old, have been
charged with her murder.
Police used batons to break up angry crowds outside a hospital where
the girl had been taken for treatment.Teachers and security guards at
the government school are being questioned over the alleged assault,
police said.The gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in
December sparked protests across India.Hundreds of people gathered to
protest outside the Sanjay Gandhi hospital in the Mangolpuri area of
northern Delhi as news of the alleged sex attack in a local school
spread.
Protesters attacked buses and pelted police with stones.Dr Sanjay
Kumar, one of those who helped treat the girl, said her injuries were
consistent with rape, reports the AP news agency.
Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit called the attack “shameful”.Rape
inside a school is a shocking incident,” she said.The protests came as
India's parliament held an angry debate over the rape and murder of
three sisters, aged six to 11, in the state of Maharashtra last
month.No-one has been arrested and opposition MPs criticised the slow
pace of the investigation.Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said one
policeman had been suspended for not acting quickly enough after they
had been reported missing.Their bodies were found in a well two days
after disappeared from their school.
The issue of sexual violence against women and girls has been under
intense scrutiny in India after the rape and murder of a student on a
Delhi bus in December led to widespread protests.Six people deny charges
over the case which shocked the nation five in a specially convened fast
track court.They face the death penalty, while a juvenile charged this
week could be sentenced to three years in a reform facility.
|