INDIA: Indian children protest serial killings of young people, calling for culprits to be hanged

Children in India took to the streets on Wednesday (January 3) shouting slogans calling for the perpetrator of grisly serial killings in Uttar Pradesh to be hanged. Last week, police found skulls, bones and clothes of 12 children and five adults, stuffed into bags and buried in the backyard of a house in New Delhi's satellite town of Noida. Police said many of the victims are believed to have been sexually abused. The owner of the house, Moninder Singh Pandher, and his domestic help, Surendra Kohli - alias Satish - have been arrested. Police said they lured the victims with chocolates and toffees. Police also said the pair have confessed to the crimes. The discovery of the bones has shocked the country and put police in the country's most populous state in a poor light. Relatives of the victims, mostly migrant labourers, have charged the police with ignoring their complaints, some of which date back two years, because they were poor. Five junior policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty. In Kanpur, children as young as three years old, took to the streets demanding justice for the enraged parents. Most of the children, who said they understood the plight of the victims, demanded death for the culprits. "We are demanding that the culprits of the serial killings in Noida should be hanged," said Swati, one of the child protesters. The state government said it would be willing to look into ordering a federal probe if the police investigation proved unsatisfactory. "We are seeing that the police are now acting fast in probing the case. If the CBI probes it will take a very long time and the process become very tiring," said Uttar Pradesh State Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The country's top court has also declined to interfere in the case, saying the matter is already being probed by various agencies, including the National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women.

ITN Source | January 3, 2007

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