In India, the complicated truth behind the killing of two teenagers
Mythili G. Rao, The Washington Post
Feb. 19, 2021
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An Ordinary Killing
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It s a shocking image: Two young girls, skinny teenagers in brightly colored salwar kameezes, hang from opposite branches of a tall mango tree, suspended from their necks by their own pink and green dupattas. Their eyes are closed. Their heads, bent by gravity, appear bowed in reverence toward one another. Sari-clad women sit in a circle around the tree, several clasping their faces with their hands. A few hold small children.
It s a snapshot of the scene in the village of Katra in Budaun,Uttar Pradesh, on May 28, 2014, the morning after the girls - Indian law requires that their names be withheld, so journalist Sonia Faleiro calls them Padma and Lalli, cousins alike as two grains of rice - went missing in the fields behind their homes after heading out for a final squat for the night.