Mob attacks over 30 schoolgirls who resisted harassment

An unruly mob, comprising mostly goons, assaulted 34 schoolgirls in Supaul district when they protested harassment by local boys.

The injured students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Triveniganj were rushed to a government hospital.

The incident took place when some girls caught hold of a few local youths who were trying to sneak into the school. The boys wrote something objectionable on the school wall and passed lewd comments at them. When the girls asked them to leave, they misbehaved with them.

Eyewitnesses said some of the girls then thrashed the boys who fled the spot. But two hours later, they returned with their friends and relatives. Most of them were armed with sticks. Even as the principal tried to calm down the mob, the goons — in their early 20s — entered the school campus and thrashed the girls (studying in classes 6 to 9) as well as the teachers on Saturday.

The injured girls were rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. “More than 12 girls sustained grievous injuries. Many of the injured have internal pain,” said Congress MP from Supaul, Ranjit Ranjan, who visited the hospital on Sunday. Ranjit is the wife of Pappu Yadav, MP from neighbouring district Madhepura.

“Such incidents won’t be tolerated. We will identify the culprits and bring the guilty to book,” said Baidyanath Yadav, Supaul DM.

SDO Vinay Kumar, who is camping at the incident site, said that four persons have been apprehended in the case. “More suspects are likely to be arrested soon,” he said.