United Nations: Commenting about the atrocious gang rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua district, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the heinous act “horrific” and asked that the guilty be brought to justice.

At a press briefing on Friday, April 13, in response to questions about the UN secretary general’s reaction to the child’s rape and murder, his spokesperson, Stephane Dujjaric told reporters that they had seen the reports of the “abuse and murder” of the nomadic Bakerwal community girl and hoped “that the authorities will bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The minor was allegedly kidnapped on January 10, and taken to a temple in Kathua, drugged and gang raped over days and finally killed to scare the nomadic Muslim community out of the village. Her body was found dumped in a forest near Rasana village seven days later.

The heinous crime and the events that followed, provoked reactions from international human rights organisations with the Human Rights Watch calling out the ruling BJP party for being prejudiced based on religion and shielding the accused. Pointing out to the bigotry surrounding the case, Amnesty International called the attempts by lawyers and right-wing activists to subvert the investigation, “disgraceful.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, condemned the rape and gave an assurance that justice would be done.

Eight people, including four police personnel — a head constable, a sub-inspector and two special police officers — have been arrested in the case and charges filed against seven of them.

Some lawyers and others tried to block the filing of the charges and meetings were held in support of those arrested in connection with the case.

On Friday two Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, who attended a rally in support of the Kathua accused in March, resigned from the Jammu and Kashmir government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

With inputs from IANS