Violent protests in Delhi after young girl is raped at school

USPA News - Violent protests erupted in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Friday after reports emerged that a seven-year-old girl was brutally raped at a school, local authorities said. It is the latest incident in a series of brutal sexual assaults that have shocked the nation.

The incident is alleged to have occurred at around 10:30 a.m. local time on Thursday during lunch hour at a municipal school in Mangolpuri, located on the outskirts of New Delhi. It is believed a person took the girl from a classroom and led her to the first floor of the school building. Investigators said the hands and legs of the young girl were tied and her mouth gagged before she was raped. The attacker then threatened the girl not to tell anyone about the incident, but her parents later noticed their daughter was upset and questioned her before noticing a blood stain. The girl later explained what had happened, after which her parents filed a police complaint. The victim was taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital where medical officials soon released the seven-year-old girl, saying she was not suffering from serious physical injuries although her parents claimed she was suffering from severe mental trauma. No arrests were immediately made, and the girl was unable to identify the attacker despite having been shown all of the school`s male staff members. It was not immediately known whether investigators had any suspects. News of the sexual assault sparked violent protests on Friday when hundreds of people gathered outside the school, claiming authorities were not working on the case. Hundreds of police forces were deployed to the area as protesters attacked buses and pelted police with stones, injuring 12 people including four policemen. The assault comes less than three months after a group of men brutally gang-raped a 23-year-old student inside a moving bus in New Delhi, prompting nationwide protests to demand justice and better protection for women. The victim was initially said to be in a stable condition but she later suffered severe organ failure as a result of serious injuries to her body and brain. She died at a hospital in Singapore on December 29. A number of other cases have since been reported, but most receive little attention. Three sisters, aged six to eleven, were raped and murdered in the state of Maharashtra last month before being dumped in a well. In another case, a six-year-old girl was raped and physically brutalized before being dumped on the side of a street in northern India.