Ns News Online Desk: For the third time in a week, a teenage girl in India was raped and then burned alive by her attacker.
The 16-year-old girl died after being doused with gasoline and set on fire by a 26-year-old man. She had said she would tell her family she was raped. The attacker, a married father of one, was arrested, along with his cousin, who told him the girl was home alone.
The latest outrage took place in Madhya Pradesh, a state in north-central India.
Last week, a 16-year-old in eastern Jharkhand state was killed after her family sought justice when she was abducted and possibly gang-raped. Village elders ordered the accused to do 100 sit-ups and pay a fine of about $750, which enraged the men. They broke into the family home, beat the parents and set the girl on fire. At least 20 men were arrested.
A 17-year-old is fighting for her life after a different attack, also in Jharkhand. She was burned over 95 percent of her body. The atrocity reportedly came after she refused to marry her 28-year-old attacker. There is no known connection between the three incidents.
These attacks are bringing new attention to the issue of sexual assault in India, adding to outrage sparked by the brutal gang rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kashmir in January. That attack led to the approval of the death penalty for rapists.
The number of reported rapes has risen steadily in recent years, to about 40,000 in 2016. Child rapes account for about 40 percent of the cases. Many more are believed to go unreported.
