Dozens of Indian schoolgirls attacked for confronting sexual harassers
Thirty-four Indian schoolgirls have been hospitalised after being attacked for resisting the sexual advances of a group of boys.
Key points
Mob of about 15 men and women thrashed the girls with canes and rods
The girls were aged between 10 and 14
A local police officer blamed the girls for the incident
It is the latest incident in what seems like an unending trend of women being harassed and abused by men in India.
The girls were in a school playground in the northern state of Bihar when they took umbrage at local boys teasing them and writing lewd graffiti on the walls nearby.
One of the boys was upset by the girls' rebuffing his advances and brought his mother and a group of other local women and men back to the playground.
The mob allegedly started bashing the schoolgirls with sticks and their bare hands, injuring dozens of them badly enough that they had to be hospitalised.
"Suddenly the girls started screaming and shouting," a school staff member identified as Reema told the Times of India newspaper.
"I saw around 15 people, both men and women, thrashing the girls with canes and rods," she said.
The girls were between the ages of 10 and 14.
Nine people have been arrested over the incident.
Local media say police have heard from the girls that the boys would often write vulgar words on the walls inside their school and harass them.
But a local police officer, Mrityunjay Kumar Choudhary, blamed the girls for the incident.
"The boys and their parents were agitated because the girl students had beaten up the boys," he told local news outlet the Hindustan Times.
Dozens of Indian schoolgirls attacked for confronting sexual harassers - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The dot-heads are one uniquely fucked up bunch when it comes to sexual gender politics.
