[USATODAY] Outrage grew Wednesday over a series of sexual assaults that have rocked India with protests since last year after an American tourist was gang-raped and robbed Tuesday by three men while on her way back to her hotel.
"What kind of a message are we trying to send -- that we are hostile to women?" said Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association, a woman's rights group. "The government has to buck up and ensure safety for female tourists."
On Tuesday night, the 30-year-old American, whose identity was withheld, was attacked in Manali in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, about 300 miles north of New Delhi. The BBC reported that authorities have issued an alert for three men and set up roadblocks in the popular tourist area.
"Because it happened at night, she couldn't read the truck number. At around 7a.m., we put up checkpoints everywhere and we've been looking for the suspects," senior local police official Vinod Dhawan told BBC Hindi.
The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,n, who was traveling on her own through the country, had visited some acquaintances in a village almost four miles away from her hotel, according to a report filed with the Indian police. Three men in a truck offered her a ride to her hotel at 1 a.m. but instead took her to a secluded forest, raped her and stole her phone, camera and money, the report said. |