Rahul Gandhi meets Alwar gang-rape victim
Jaipur: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday met a Dalit woman who was allegedly gang-raped in front of her husband in Rajasthan's Alwar district, party sources said.
Gandhi was accompanied by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy CM Sachin Pilot and Congress national general secretary Avinash Pandey, they said.
He was earlier scheduled to arrive here Wednesday.
On April 26, six miscreants accosted the woman and her husband on the Thanagazi-Alwar bypass and took them to an isolated place, where they allegedly raped her in front of him.
An FIR was lodged on May 2 and the accused circulated a video clip of the crime on May 4. Subsequently, five accused, who allegedly raped the woman, and the one who shot and circulated the video clip, have been arrested.
The incident triggered widespread protests in Alwar, Jaipur, Dausa and nearby areas and a protest march led by BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Kirori Lal Meena had turned violent in Dausa on Tuesday, leaving over half a dozen people injured.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BSP supremo Mayawati and other leaders have condemned the incident.
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5.8 magnitude quake hits Afghanistan killing 8
Kabul (AP): An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 rattled parts of northern and eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan late Friday, killing at least eight people in Afghanistan, authorities said.
The region is highly seismically active, and quakes have caused thousands of deaths in recent years. Friday's earthquake had an epicentre in the Hindu Kush mountain range, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of the Afghan city of Kunduz, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the US Geological Survey.
Hafizullah Basharat, a spokesman for the Kabul governor, said eight people were killed and a child was injured when a house collapsed on the outskirts of the capital. He said all were members of the same family.
Kabul is roughly 290 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of the epicentre. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from areas closer to the epicentre. The area is remote, and it can often take several hours before local authorities can relay information back to Kabul.
With the epicentre at a depth of over 180 kilometers, the quake jolted a wide swath of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Pakistan, it was felt in the cities and towns of Islamabad, Peshawar, Chitral, Swat and Shangla, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Pakistan.
Afghanistan's Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said Kabul and provincial health authorities had been put on alert.
Last August, a 6.0 earthquake that struck a remote, mountainous part of eastern Afghanistan killed more than 2,200 people, levelling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most casualties were in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep valleys.
In November, a 6.3 earthquake struck Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, killing at last 27 people and injuring more than 950. It also damaged historical sites, including Afghanistan's famed Blue Mosque in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, and the Bagh-e-Jahan Nama Palace in Khulm.
On Oct 7, 2023, a 6.3 quake followed by strong aftershocks in western Afghanistan killed thousands of people.
Impoverished Afghanistan often faces difficulty in responding to natural disasters, especially in remote regions. Many homes in rural and outlying areas are made from mud bricks and wood, with many poorly built.
M5.9 earthquake strikes Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region in Badakhshan. Widely reported at 08:42 pm, depth 171 km. No immediate casualty or damage reports from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India or nearby areas. #sismo pic.twitter.com/Lhddad9Uwr
— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) April 3, 2026
