GUWAHATI: Close to 4,000 women and girls have been raped in Assam between January 2013 and November 2014, forest minister Rockybul Hussain said on Monday in reply to a written question in the House.
Replying on behalf of chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who also holds the home portfolio, Hussain said, among these, 25 were murdered after being raped.
According to the minister’s reply, 1,960 women and girls were raped in 2013 and 1,883 have been raped till November this year. Fourteen women and girls were raped and murdered in 2013, while 11 have been murdered till November this year.
The minister said 22 women were killed in witch-hunts and 32 tortured in the same period. In 2013, 17 women were killed, and 12 tortured, after being branded ‘witches’.
He said the state is working on bringing a legislation to curb the menace of witch-hunting in the state