Six men have been arrested over the rape of a passenger on a bus in India, police said yesterday, weeks after the gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests.
The victim had boarded the bus to her in-laws’ home in northern Punjab State when she was abducted on Friday and driven to a district bordering the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, local police officer Raj Jeet Singh said.
Five men joined the driver and conductor, who had taken her by motorbike to an unknown address, and took turns raping the victim before dropping her off near her in-laws’ village on Saturday morning, he said.
Photo: Reuters
“The lady, after being kidnapped, was raped brutally throughout the night by the seven accused,” he said. “After raping the victim throughout the night, one of the accused dropped her near her in-laws’ house the next morning where she narrated the whole incident to her two sisters-in-law.”
He said the extent of her injuries had yet to be established.
The attack is disturbingly similar to the Dec. 16 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi, where five men are on trial in a case that has fueled anger across India over the treatment of women.
Partap Singh Bajwa, a local Congress Party politician, blamed the police for not enforcing checks on buses operating in the state.
“It all happened due to laxity of police as they never bother to check out the buses moving on national highways during nighttime,” Bajwa told reporters.
Protesters across India have called for the police to be more vigilant and sensitive to the growing incidence of sexual assault against women, after details emerged of the New Delhi attack.
Police and prosecutors have outlined how the alleged rapists picked up the student and her male companion in a school bus which they had taken for a joyride after drinking heavily.
The bus would have had to cross numerous police checkpoints at that time of night, but at no stage was the vehicle pulled over by officers.
The group allegedly beat up the woman’s male companion and then raped her in the back of the bus while driving around Delhi for about 45 minutes.
She died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after the attack from injuries sustained during the assault.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary