7 Year-Old Girl Buried Alive Saved By Villager

A seven-year-old Indian girl who was allegedly
buried alive by relatives in the northern state of

Uttar Pradesh has been rescued by a villager.
Police say relatives first tried to strangle her and
then left her to die in a shallow grave. It is
unclear why.
The man who found her in Sitapur district
alerted police – she was taken to a hospital and
is said to be doing well.
Police are looking for her mother, uncle and
aunt who they say have fled.
The villager who rescued her followed the sound
of muffled cries to the middle of a cane field
where he found the soil moving.
Police allege the girl’s uncle and aunt had
promised to take her to a fair, but then
strangled and buried her near the village of
Semri Gaura where she lives.
“When the girl became conscious, she began to
remove the soil on top of her and clambered
out of the shallow grave. Then she sat there and
cried loudly when the villager spotted her,”
Sitapur police chief Rajesh Krishna told BBC
Hindi.
“There are strangulation marks around the girl’s
neck.”
Reports say the girl lived with her mother. Her
father apparently had no idea about the attack
and has told police he is estranged from his wife
and lives separately.
Police say they have yet to establish a motive
for the attack. But cases of baby girls being
killed are not uncommon in India, where women
are often discriminated against socially and girls
are seen as a financial burden, particularly
among poor communities.
In 2012, the father and uncle of a baby girl in
Uttar Pradesh allegedly tried to bury her alive,
apparently as a sacrifice to protect the health of
their other children on the advice of a spiritual
guru.
PUNCH