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‘We want justice’: Thousands march in streets of Indian Kashmir after rape of three-year-old girl
- Police said the child was raped after being lured into an empty school by a neighbour
- The girl’s mother followed her screams to find her bleeding inside a bathroom
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Thousands of people marched in the streets of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday to demand the death penalty for a man who raped a toddler, amid growing anger over sexual violence in the troubled Himalayan region.
Dozens of people were injured, most of them police, when officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators who had blocked part of a highway, police said in a statement.
The three-year-old girl’s rape came weeks after the suicide of a girl who police say was repeatedly raped by her own father, and has intensified public concerns over sexual violence.
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Shops, businesses and schools were also shut across the Muslim-majority region in response to a strike called by separatist cleric Moulana Masoor Abbas to protest the rape.
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“We called for strike today to make people aware about growing incidents of rapes in the valley. We want justice for the victim,” Abbas said.
Police said the child was lured into an empty school by a neighbour and raped last Wednesday. Her mother followed her screams to find her bleeding inside a bathroom.
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