16-year-old Dalit girl raped and left dead in a field

Horror in the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh over another episode of brutal violence. After the discovery of the body, the anger of the village exploded. Sister Liza of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Grace: "An inhuman crime on the eve of March 8"

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A 16-year-old Dalit girl was raped and killed on Sunday 28 February in the Aligarh district of Akrabad, Uttar Pradesh.

According to media reports, the girl went to a field to get some wheat when she was allegedly raped. Later her lifeless body was found near the field with signs of severe injuries. The incident aroused the anger of the villagers who started a protest, burning police vehicles and preventing officials from taking the body away demanding justice. Eye witnesses also refer to clashes.

Initial reports indicate the girl had been living with her maternal relatives since the age of five. When they did not see her return at the scheduled time, yesterday afternoon her relatives asked for help from the villagers, who began looking for her.

Akrabad Police Superintendent Muniraj G. explained that the girl's body was found in the agricultural area earlier today and was eventually taken away for an autopsy. Measures - he added he - will be taken on the basis of the investigation.

This new tragedy is yet another in a long list of violence of this kind targeting Dalit girls: just a few days ago, three other minors who went out to collect fodder were attacked, two of them were killed. Before that, on the eve of the Deepavali party, it was the turn of a 6-year-old girl.

Deep sorrow for the incident was expressed by Sister Liza, of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Grace (FSLG), who is in charge of the hospital that the religious order runs in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

Born in the 1980s as a small dispensary, today the Nostra Signora delle Grazie hospital is a fully equipped medical centre that takes care of mothers and children. “

This heinous crime - Sister Liza explains to AsiaNews - is inhumane and unspeakably barbaric and I condemn in the strongest possible terms, the strictest punishment must be meted out to the perpetrators. Women’s Day is coming up on 8th March, and this kind of news is very painful and distressing, human values have been drastically marginalized. The atrocities on our girls and women has consequences on us all.”

• India
• Uttar Pradesh
• dalit
• women
• violence
• 8 March
• Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Grace
• Meerut
• Akrabad