A three-year-old girl has been raped and murdered as part of a feud between two rival families in India, the victim’s father has said.
The child went missing on Wednesday and was found in a field just 1,600ft from her home after she was strangled to death.
It was the third rape-murder of a minor in the Lakhimpur Kher district of Uttar Pradesh state in the past 20 days.
A man from the girl’s village, Lekhram, has since been arrested after the father alleged he had kidnapped his daughter due to a long running rivalry.
Four police teams carried out a manhunt in the area to track down the suspected killer.
Recently the mutilated body of a 17-year-old girl was found just 200 metres away from her village in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
She had left home to complete a scholarship application before she was raped and murdered, police said.
Shortly before this a 13-year-old girl was also raped and strangled, also in Lakhimpur Kheri.
The spree off attacks have led to uproar in Uttar Pradesh’s congress and from the opposition Samajwadi Party, who have attacked the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over what they say is a breakdown of law and order.
Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lalu tweeted: ‘Even after so many incidents our “tough” Chief Minister has not fixed responsibility. A dying system and a helpless Chief Minister.’
The Women and Child Safety Organization was recently created by Uttar Pradesh’s regional government following a surge of attacks against women and girls.
It is led by a senior police officer specialising in handling these sorts of cases.
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