Tensions erupt in India after 11-year-old raped and murdered

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FE Team | Published: July 09, 2026 21:48:25

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KOLKATA, July 09 (BBC): The Indian state of West Bengal has been on the boil for the past few days over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The body of the child was fished out from a pond on Sunday - a day after her family reported her missing.
The incident in Surjyapur village in Baruipur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, has triggered days of violent protests, a mob lynching and the police killing of one of the suspects. Three other men who have been arrested remain in custody.
The child's rape and murder - and the subsequent killing of the suspect - has snowballed into a huge political row, with the opposition parties accusing the state's newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of failing to protect women.
The BJP, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time ever in May, has rejected the accusation. But the crime, barely two months after the win, couldn't have come at a worse time as the party had campaigned heavily on the issue of making the state safe for women.
Analysts say one of the main reasons three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost the election was growing concern over women's safety and her government's shoddy handling of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a government hospital.