The Tribune – Delhi’s shame: Girl battles for life after gang-rape in bus

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17. In another incident shaming the Capital, a 23-year-old girl was brutally beaten up and gang-raped twice allegedly by four men inside a moving private bus in south Delhi last night. She was stripped naked by her assaulters and thrown out of the bus under a flyover at Mahipalpur.

The rape happened in front of the victim’s male friend, who was also badly thrashed by the accused. The victim, who hails from Uttarakhand, is in a critical condition at the Safdarjung Hospital, the police said.

The girl had completed a paramedical course at Dehradun and was working with a hospital in Delhi. Her friend is an engineer and works with HCL.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South District), Chhaya Sharma said, “Six persons have been detained and main accused Ram Singh who hails from Rajasthan has been arrested. Some vehicles have also been impounded. We have the CCTV footage of the bus but are yet to identify it.” Unconfirmed reports said the bus had been identified and traced to Noida. It was allegedly used to transport school children between Delhi and Noida.

The police has registered a case under various IPC sections pertaining to rape, robbery and abduction at the Vasant Vihar police station in South Delhi.

The police claimed that the couple after watching a movie in Saket had taken an auto-rickshaw to Munirka at 9.15 pm yesterday. From Munirka, they boarded a private bus for Mahipalpur. The bus had four passengers who reportedly started teasing the boy. An argument ensued, resulting in a fight and the boy was severely beaten. The four men then took the woman to the driver’s cabin and gang-raped her twice.

The boy’s uncle, D K Mishra, had told reporters that the couple was then stripped naked and their belongings were snatched away. Then the duo was thrown of the bus under the Mahipalpur flyover in an unconscious state. Chhaya Sharma said the site where the couple was dumped is close to the Gurgaon toll plaza. A call was made to the police police at 10.30 pm from there.

Police sources said the call was transferred to the Gurgaon police. They then informed their Delhi counterparts. The couple was taken to the Safdarjung Hospital by some people around 11 pm.

While the girl is battlling for her life, her friend was discharged from hospital. The victim remained unresponsive to treatment and is on the ventilator with serious injuries in her stomach and intestine.

The incident has triggered an outrage in the Capital. JNU students shouted slogans outside the station Vasant Vihar Police Station on Monday evening. A bigger protest is being planned by students, women rights organisations and local residents on Tuesday.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121218/main3.htm

Dawn – Imran Khan asks Obama to end US drone attacks

Gurgaon, 7 November 2012. Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan said Wednesday he hoped President Barack Obama would “give peace a chance” and stop US drone attacks now that he has been re-elected.

Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party (PTI), has campaigned for an end to US drone strikes against suspected Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, saying they result in civilian casualties.

“What Pakistan would be hoping for is a de-escalation of violence now in Afghanistan and the drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas,” he told reporters where he was attending the India World Economic Forum.

Khan said that Obama’s first term in office had been “very tough on Pakistan – an increase in drone attacks and a surge in Afghanistan and increased militancy in Pakistan as a result.”

“Now he (Obama) is no longer under the pressure to be re-elected we hope that he will give peace a chance which we so desperately need,” he said.

Khan argues that drone strikes are illegal and counterproductive and last month led thousands of supporters – and some US peace activists – on a march to the edge of Pakistan’s restive tribal districts to protest against them.

The Pakistani politician said he wanted Obama to call a ceasefire in Afghanistan, saying that if Americans do not “get it right it is conceivable that they will leave it in a bigger mess than they found it.”

The White House has said that Washington will gradually hand over security responsibility to the Afghans and eventually withdraw US troops. The US-led Nato force plans to pull out its 100,000 troops by the end of 2014.

Islamist militants have killed thousands of people in Pakistan since 2007, and US officials say the drone strikes are a key weapon in the war on terror.

But peace campaigners condemn them as a breach of international law.

Pakistanis call them a violation of sovereignty that breeds extremism, and politicians including Khan say the government is complicit in killing its own people.

Casualty figures are difficult to obtain, but a report commissioned by legal lobby group Reprieve estimated last month that 474 to 881 civilians were among 2,562 to 3,325 people killed by drones in Pakistan between June 2004 and September 2012.

http://dawn.com/2012/11/07/imran-khan-asks-obama-to-end-us-drone-attacks/

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