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Adnan Abidi / Reuters
Mourners arrive at a cremation ground to attend the funeral of a rape victim after her body arrived from Singapore, in New Delhi on Sunday.
NEW DELHI - The body of a woman whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India arrived back in New Delhi early on Sunday and was quickly cremated at a private ceremony.
The unidentified 23-year-old medical student died from her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage.
She had suffered brain injuries and massive internal injuries in the attack on Dec. 16, and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment.
She and a male friend had been returning home from a movie theater, media reports say, when six men on a bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. The friend survived.
India charges six suspects with murder after victim of horrific gang rape dies
Six suspects were charged with murder after her death.
A Reuters correspondent saw family members who had been with her in Singapore take her body from the airport to their Delhi home in an ambulance with a police escort.
Ruling party leader Sonia Gandhi was seen arriving at the airport when the plane landed and Prime Minister Mannmohan Singh's convoy was also there, the witness said.
A 23-year-old medical student who was raped and attacked on a city bus in New Delhi has died, resulting in charges against six men. Even before she died, her savage attack triggered mass protests about treatment of women. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.
The body was then taken to a crematorium and cremated. Media were kept away but a Reuters witness saw the woman's family and government officials, including junior home minister, R.P.N. Singh, coming out of the crematorium.
Security in the capital remained tight after authorities, worried about the reaction to the news of her death, had on Saturday deployed thousands of policemen and closed some roads and metro stations.
Protesters still gathered, in New Delhi and other cities, to keep the pressure on Singh's government to get tougher on crime against women. Last weekend, protesters fought pitched battles with police.
On Sunday, lines of policemen in riot gear and armed with heavy wooden sticks stood in front of metal barricades closing off roads in New Delhi. Morning traffic was light.
Government caught off-guard
The outcry over the attack caught the government off-guard. It took a week for Singh to make a statement, infuriating many protesters.
Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide rarely enter mainstream political discourse in India.
The 23-year-old who was gang-raped in New Delhi and thrown from a bus has died from her injuries in Singapore, where she was being treated. NBC's Natalie Morales reports.
Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed "Amanat," an Urdu word meaning "treasure," by some Indian media could change that, although it is too early to say whether the protesters calling for government action to better safeguard women can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.
India gang-rape victim dies in hospital; case focused attention on sexual violence
Newspapers raised doubts about the commitment of both male politicians and the police to protecting women.
"Would the Indian political system and class have been so indifferent to the problem of sexual violence if half or even one-third of all legislators were women?" the Hindu newspaper asked.
The Indian Express acknowledged the police force was understaffed and poorly paid, but there was more to it than that.
"It is geared towards dominating citizens rather than working for them, not to mention being open to influential interests," the newspaper said. "It reflects the misogyny around us, rather than actively fighting for the rights of citizens who happen to be female."
PhotoBlog: Police try to temper outrage over gang rape
Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists, who say that successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women.
Commentators and sociologists say the rape has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in India rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.
More world stories from NBC News:
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This is awful, but I just have to wonder why this one crime has gotten so much coverage. Woman are being raped and villages tortured in DRCongo every single day. There have been rebel militia taking over whole towns and raping every female. I have not heard a word about it on MSN. I guess it's not tragic if it happens to someone in Africa...
Sunnydays123,I concur with your comments.It's a horrible shame for all modern societies,our country for one,to not try and do something about these crimes committed against women abroad.However,we need stiffer penalties in this country when a murder or rape and or torture are involved.
I hope her death brings changes for others.It's awful.
Yeah, and the USA outsources to these backwards countries such a "fine " culture 1.5 billion people live there and nobody does anything while this is going on that makes it a nation of 1.5 billion guilty people.
Makes me sick that they look the other way
Bridget,I agree with you.AT&T is one company that outsources the 611 and DSL repair call centers.Although their employees are nice,we usually end up shooting the trouble for them because that is what we used to do at AT&T. Corporate America should take into consideration the cultures of the countries that they ship their businesses to.Walmarts another irresponsible company that comes to mind.These corporations could help make changes as to how women in these countries are treated if they put in a little bit of effort.
Who said nothing is being done? Those criminals are in jail, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, as they should. Let's not generalize this to the entire country, in case you haven't read, people there are outraged and protesting as well.
Also, in case you haven't read the whole story:
The bus was not a public bus - it was taken illegally by these drunk criminals, no one else on the bus. "Driver" was one of them. Tinted windows, posed as a transport service, poor victims did not suspect this. Police did not stop as they may not have known, failures in many areas but not "complicit" or "condoned" as some might have us believe.
As far as your complaint about outsourcing - write to your Senators and Congress representatives.
Rapists are like Cockroaches.. We need to shine a light on them. If these particular roaches are proud of what they have done, and believe they have done nothing wrong, and have the protection of other men, and India's attitudes and laws governing women in that country, they won't mind showing their faces. Apparently they thought they could rape, and beat that woman and even kill her without censure, or risk to their own safety. Why else would they commit such a heinous act? It is a shame that they will not be given a dose of their own brand of inhumane logic.. But itt is likely that they will not be beaten and raped, and then thrown out like yesterday's trash as women are in many countries. They will most likely be treated as if they have some kind of human value. Even though they are not deserving of it.
"Rapists are like Cockroaches.. We need to shine a light on them."
Cockroaches, like rats or any other vermin that are allowed to way over populate begin to get more and more brave as their numbers increase, to the point that they are no longer afraid of light or anything else for that matter. If India and China's pouplations are not curbed at least to some extent, in a few more yrs people will be eating people. It's absolutely ridiculous that those two nations harbor at least one fifth of the entire worlds population.
With almost a billion and counting India seems to be in a contest with China to see which one can overpopulate the world first. You'd think with a population that disgustingly high there would be an easy piece of tail around every corner. It's pretty obvious that with that many people in a country of geographical size no bigger than that there is definitely a helluva lot of consentual leg spreading going on anyhow.
they should gather all the monsters responsible for this and casterate all of them in front of the victims family,then put them in prison and hope they get the same treatment by other prisoners.....
@adam white, casterate them yes, then hang them in the village square. That should be done in every country to these monsters. Just like the pedophiles, sooner or later it might stop a lot of this.
The problem is not in their genitals and castrating them won't stop anything. The problem is in their brains. If you want to stop a sexual predator castrate them just below the chin.
Now, cremate the perps while alive.
Hang'em........Which is what america should do to child molesters, rapists and murders. Americans are to soft on crime. To many bleeding heart folks who would rather put up with violence and crime than to do something about it.
I expect an update to their sentence MSN!
Bad eggs were meant to be thrown out. This is the reason that there is so much crime and our prison system is overloaded. Yes some can be rehabilitated, "That's why we'll always need prisons" most of those prisoners that can be rehabilitated are the one's that probably wouldn't have become prisoners if we had tougher laws to begin with!
This young lady suffered so much and it is just tragic.May her untimely death bring about change in India on the way that rape is perceived.My deepest sympathies to her family and to her young male friend.I hope that he continues his education so as not to let these thugs win.
To quote a line out of one of my favorite movies-exterminate them all. I cant tell who the protestors are, or the criminals. Just drop a bomb on them, and several other countries that come to mind, and call it a day.
Oh, I see, when they come over here and start gang raping your daughter, you wont mind then, right???
Because it's gonna happen, just wait. We need to get these people as far away from us as possible, like in the good 'ole days when we were not at war, when we didnt send our boys over there to die, just to make money on each tank that went over there, like the Vice Pres does. We need to take care of our own, and we need to start doing that NOW. I'm very sorry to hear about this 23 year old, but certainly, this is NOTHING NEW NOW IS IT????
tldaviso824,We haven't sent our troops to India.India is an ally of the U.S.I have worked with and met many fine upstanding people from India,Iran and Pakistan.They are not tolerant of the treatment and these crimes against women,thus they immigrated to America.Our justice system when dealing with rapists is nothing to be proud of either.Every country still needs to make bigger strides in these types of crimes with harsh penalties so that they don't keep occurring.
Why doesn't the US step up and quit allowing companies to outsource to this backward $hithole until their government fixes the human rights and violence against women issues? It will bring jobs back to the US and maybe these ignorant men will begin to understand that they are idiots, but I doubt that. I know people from there and even the ones who live here still have that male-superior attitude.
WISEONE.
Women enjoy equal rights only in certain sections of society. However, in lower strata the life of women is indeed bad. And most of Indian population belong to the lower strata. Even in recent times as we speak, there are many instances where rape victims are forced to accept the evil done to them. Horribly, the victim is forced/pressured to marry the perpetrators. The people who pressure the victim are shamefully village elders, policemen, politicians and others who have authority. It is indeed shameful!
Top Indian politicians are coming out with statements on this incident such as girls should not go out at night and they should not wear revealing cloths. This mindset with Indian politicians and some old people are wrong. Sadly, 95% of Indian politicians are old! As you said, women are now in high positions, how can they stay at home when have to work night shifts to support their family.
How do you expect a country like India to grow when more than 90% of population live in fear to even voice their opinions. India is just democracy in words. This is the difference between U.S and India, an individual in U.S can voice their opinion without fear, which is fundamental to any true democracy.
Sadly, evil like this has to happen to start some change. India will change at some point, but from my point of view that change is couple of generations away!
If India is serious about changing the law and attitiude against RAPE---
publish the photo , name and address of the 6 arrested rapists!
This recent horrific gang rape in Delhi can be a watershed event for the world’s largest democracy. Unprecedented protesting in the capital city has put increasing pressure on lawmakers to crack down on enforcement and fast-track the court system. It will take too long and cost too many lives unless we come together as civic and corporate communities to unite and empower real change. We need the support of American companies doing business in India. I am suggesting that the horrible death and painful suffering
of this young woman and the thousands like her who go unreported require us to model the values of a global community who will condemn such violence and ensure safe spaces for women and men in the communities we serve. Please sign this petition asking American companies doing business in India to condemn this
horror and ensure public safety. Link:
I think she was a willing participant in an orgy that just got out of hand. Some women get off on that stuff. But that's just my opinion.
you sound just as sick as the people that raped her. what you drunk
Real men don't rape. That about says it. It would appear that these six animals had a pack mentality that said it was perfectly within their rights to violate a bright, beautiful, medical student. *crosses 'Visit India' off my bucket list*
Another gang rape/murder - Indian style.
This just reported by The Times of India today
KOLKATA: Fifty-two-year-old Mahashin Ali wakes up with a start every 15 minutes in his ICU cubicle at RG Kar Medical College Hospital. Eyes wide open in horror and gasping for breath, he asks for his wife, who was allegedly gang raped and bludgeoned to death at Sonakharki in Barasat on Saturday evening.
"They are killing her. Please do something," he mumbles hoarsely, before lapsing back into unconsciousness. Doctors say Mahashin is in critical condition, his throat scorched by a chemical that was allegedly forced on him by the attackers. His condition worsened suddenly on Sunday morning after which he was shifted to ICU. He has not been told about his wife's death.
"He says he is burning up inside ever since an acid-like liquid was pushed into his mouth by the gang. Every time he wakes up, he breaks into tears. His limbs are still shaking and he is repeatedly falling unconscious," said Mosadul Ali, a neighbour who has been with him since he was brought to RG Kar on Saturday night. Mahashin isn't poor but took up work at a brick kiln to raise money for his four-month-old grandson who has a kidney ailment.
From his fragmented accounts, Mahashin's son Alfaz and Mosadul have reconstructed a horrific tale. He had gone to the brick kiln to escort his 45-year-old wife home around 6.30pm when he saw a few men dragging her away into a bamboo grove. It was dark and barring a house, there is no settlement in a 100-metre radius. Mahashin says he ran to rescue her.
"But there were around seven of them. While four raped his wife, the other three pinned him down, tied him and poured acid down his throat. He tried to scream but they shut his mouth with the bottle. After a while, he gave up fighting because his throat and chest had been singed and he had no strength left in him. The ordeal must have lasted about 15 minutes," said Mosadul. Mahashin could apparently see his wife being battered.
You was only a year younger than me. I'm sure you were a wonderful woman, who obviously was very motivated and was trying to make a good life for yourself by going to medical school. I'm so sorry these animals did this to you. You would have given so much back to the world but instead you were snuffed out by the worthless and greedy men who violated, beat and murdered you. Your body was so devastated that it could not continue to function properly and much of your intestines were destroyed because of the abuse you endured. You suffered for days which probably seemed like forever, before passing away. I'm so sorry this happend to you. I'm sorry you will not get to see justice served on your behalf. I hope that before you slipped away, you were aware of the many people around the world who were hoping and praying for your recovery. Please rest in peace now, you did not deserve any of what was done to you.
the are like animals. humans are suppose to be more intelligent to do what some of them do. i can't see why some of them want to act like animals. they must be illiterate or have a social problems or both. if they cant control their self they should be put away to protect society from these people. the protesters are right and things should change in India.
I'm guessing that concealed carry permits aren't allowed in India. Imagine that! Bad guys alive... good girl raped and dead! Go figure.