Daily Lessons from Life 23 August 2013 - Photographer gang-raped in Mumbai: police

"Photographer gang-raped in Mumbai: police - AFP Aug 23, 2013 MUMBAI - Five men gang-raped a female photographer in India's financial hub Mumbai, police said Friday, fuelling anger and stirring memories of a similar attack last December in New Delhi. The latest incident occurred Thursday evening in an isolated part of an upmarket, centrally located district of Mumbai where the 23-year-old woman, accompanied by a male colleague, was taking photos of old buildings for a magazine, a police officer told AFP. "The men beat up the man, tied him up and raped the woman in a secluded part of the Shakti Mills area," the officer said, requesting anonymity. The victim, reportedly an intern, is undergoing treatment at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital and preliminary reports suggest multiple internal injuries, the officer told AFP. A hospital statement said she was "stable". Mumbai police, who will address media later Friday, released sketches of the five accused. The woman identified two of them by their first names, which she overheard them using, investigators said. The incident comes eight months after another 23-year-old woman was gang-raped by five men in a moving bus in New Delhi, while her male companion was beaten up. She died two weeks later from severe injuries. A trial is under way in that case, which sparked massive protests and led to a new, tougher anti-rape law. The new measures increased punishment for sex offenders, which now include the death penalty if a victim dies, and broadened the definition of sexual assault. Sex crimes have continued across India since the December 16 gang-rape but Thursday's attack once again captured the attention of the media and public, and came as a shock to many in Mumbai, considered one of India's safest cities for women. Local journalist groups planned demonstrations in the city later on Friday, while India's parliament erupted in protest at the gang-rape. India's Law Minister Kapil Sibal said sex assaults must be dealt with "in the most severe fashion". "This country cannot afford to have our women (and) children insecure in the hands of those who attack them," he told reporters." This is most sickening. Another gang-rape of an innocent young lady. In Mumbai, a city that the Indians prided as cosmopolitan and international given its commercial center reputation! And a safe, at least used to be, city for women folks! Lessons for me are: 1. how old a civilization has NOTHING to do with HOW LOW some of its people can become! Sexually assaulting a young lady is act of unthinking beast. When someone acted like a beast, it is best to treat him like a beast. A wild beast out of control does not deserve sympathy and compassion. It will be a misplaced act; 2. while most beasts are wild by nature, when they KNOW that the consequence of being WILD and out of control means maximum prison term or even death, they do TRY to behave. You see, most beasts are COWARDS. That is why they need to rape in group. In a group they are bold. Individually they are cowards. May the new rape laws be applied with extreme strictness with these beasts; 3. what now about the reputation of India? Like the news report said: "Sex crimes were still occurring since the 16 December 2012 New Delhi's death of a gang-rape victim". What has the men folks got to say about this? Yes. The extreme cases are the minority but every rape, let alone gang rape, is one too many. The majority of the men folks should speak out and demonstrate to tell their own kind that REAL MEN don't assault women folks. Hopefully the young victim will recover and gets all the help she needs to return to a normal life.