Protests swirl in India after seven-year-old girl abducted, raped and left for dead

Thousands in India are calling for those behind the abduction and rape of a seven-year-old girl to receive the death penalty as the country continues to grapple with a crisis of crimes against women and girls.

A week ago the girl was abducted outside her school in Mandsaur.

She was found the next day, dumped in bushes about 2,000 feet from her school, with her throat slit open.

Rushed to hospital, medical tests confirmed she had been raped and assaulted with sharp-edged weapons.

After several surgeries, doctors at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore said the girl is in stable condition, The Washington Post reports.

It’s the first high-profile case of sexual assault since India’s cabinet passed an ordinance in April allowing for the death penalty for those who rape children under 12.

The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, told reporters on Friday the alleged perpetrators had been arrested and that authorities were working to “ensure through fast track courts that he will get capital punishment at the earliest”.

It’s the latest horrific incident in India’s continuing crisis of crimes against women and girls which have sparked nationwide protests.

Protests broke out in Mandsaur as news of the crime broke, quickly spreading across central India, with hundreds of protestors gathering in cities, calling on the two men arrested to receive the death penalty.

Protestors rallying behind the victim hope their voices will help secure justice.

The girl’s father, a flower vendor, has said the family “want the legal process in this case to be completed at the earliest and the convicts to be given death sentences as soon as possible”.