2 Dalit sisters gang-raped and murdered in UP; 6 held

News Network

September 15, 2022

Lucknow, Sept 15: Six men were arrested on Thursday after bodies of two Dalit teenage sisters, hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, drew public outrage. According to sources, the accused have admitted to murdering the girls after rape.

The accused have been identified as Chotu Gautam, Junaid, Sohail, Hafizul, Karimuddin and Arif. SP Lakhimpur Kheri Sanjeev Suman said that Junaid was nabbed after an encounter, where he was shot in his leg.

The main accused, Chotu Gautam, had reportedly introduced the sisters to other three accused. One of the accused wanted to marry one of the sisters, they added. Police, meanwhile, has denied kidnapping theory and said that the sisters went on their own.

Late on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh police revealed that two teenage sisters were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field located about a kilometre away from their house in Nighasan police station limits of Lakhimpur Kheri. As soon as the news broke, political reactions began pouring in.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the Uttar Pradesh government over “increasing" crimes against women in the state and compared the twin deaths with the Hathras gang-rape and murder.

The mother of the two girls alleged that they were murdered and accused three youths from the neighbouring village in Nighasan police station limits of abducting and killing them. Police said their bodies were sent for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of deaths.

Meanwhile, villagers held a demonstration at Nighasan Cross to protest the killings. Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Suman and Assistant Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh talked to the irate villagers in a bid to console them, while a heavy police forced was deployed in the village to ensure law and order.

Comparing Wednesday’s case to the Hathras incident, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet, “Murder of two Dalit sisters after kidnapping them in Nighasan police station area. Their father’s allegation on the police is very serious that they carried out ‘panchnama’ and post-mortem without the family’s consent. After farmers in Lakhimpur, the killing of Dalits is now a repetition of the murder of ‘Hathras’ daughter’."

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter to condemn the incident. “The killings of the two sisters in Lakhimpur is heartbreaking. Family says the girls were abducted in broad daylight. Law and order in the state doesn’t improve by giving false advertisements in newspapers and TV everyday. After all, why are heinous crimes against women increasing in Uttar Pradesh? When will the government wake up?"

A 19-year-old Dalit woman was raped allegedly by four upper-caste men in Hathras on September 14. She died on September 29 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family members had alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out “according to the wishes of the family".

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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