A 14-year-old girl in Assam’s Nagaon district, who was gang-raped on August 22, had chillingly asked her aunt just two days before, “Aunty, what is rape?” She said that she felt “shattered” when this incident happened, wondering how such a heinous thing could happen there. She felt that she had failed in protecting her niece.
She also mentioned that her niece has expressed her desire to become a DSP and that, in spite of everything, the young woman had conversed with the hospital’s visiting DSP and even grinned at him. On August 22, the girl was attacked as she was leaving her tutoring lessons in Dhing, Nagaon, just one kilometer from her house. She usually traveled back with her aunt or in a rickshaw after spending time with her grandparents and aunt. But she had ridden her bike to her tuition, and when she returned home at around six o’clock at night, three thugs attacked her in a woodland not far from her house.
When the locals discovered her unconscious in the wooded area, they took her right away to a nearby hospital. A bandh call has been made throughout Assam in response to the event, calling for the perpetrators to face harsh punishment and justice for the Class IX girl. The girl’s aunt reported to the police that her father, who resides in Guwahati, transferred her to her aunt’s residence in Dhing because of a financial difficulty. The girl’s schooling and other costs were being covered by her aunt, who made Rs 10,000 a month. The father described how heartbreaking it was to see his daughter comatose in a hospital bed, unable to speak.
Tafazul Islam, one of the accused, is said to have perished after trying to escape from police by jumping into a pond. While the investigation is ongoing, authorities are searching for the remaining suspects. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, called the incident a “crime against humanity.”
