HYDERABAD: “Never before has our village been witness to such an inhuman act. We demand that the accused be meted out instant punishment, such that it sends a warning to every potential criminal out there,” said an aggrieved resident of Turkapally village. The villagers had taken to the streets on Friday, demanding justice for the 6-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered in their village on Thursday.
Even as the parents lay inconsolable, the entire village came out in their support, mourning for the innocent child who was playing with their children until only a few hours ago.
“She used to play with my daughter near our home. There was a gang of them who played together. Nobody could have imagined that such a thing would happen to her,” the victim’s neighbour said. “It was rare for her to come out of her house. She came this time because it was Holi.”
After the postmortem, the victim’s body was brought to her house, where the entire village gathered to pay homage to the girl. Later, small children to elderly women lined up on the streets under the hot sun, demanding justice for the child. “How can someone be so brutal? Today, this happened to our child. Before some other child becomes a victim as well, the accused should be punished to death,” a woman lamented.
A young villager noted that the public representatives were conspicuously absent from the scene. “No one even came to provide moral support to the family,” he said