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Girl, 13, 'one of India's youngest honour killing victims' after being 'beaten to death and set on fire'

Protest: Women campaigning against violence towards women in India (file photo): Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
Protest: Women campaigning against violence towards women in India (file photo): Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters

A 13-year-old girl is believed to have become one of India’s youngest ever "honour killing" victims after her father allegedly beat her head against a wall and set her on fire because he saw her talking to a boy.

The teenager was beaten and strangled by her father before he set fire to the body and tried to pass off her death as suicide, police in the Nalgonda district of southern India, said.

The girl’s father had noticed his daughter frequently talking to a boy in the Chintapally village where they lived.

He lashed out and killed her on September 15 after he saw her talking to the boy again, hitting her head against a wall before strangling her, police said.

Her mother is then believed to have helped set fire to the body so the parents could make out their daughter’s death was suicide.

Police said her father believed she was going to visit her uncle regularly to find a way to talk to the boy, according to the Hindustan Times.

When he questioned her, she explained it was just “casual talk” and he flew into a fit of rage, according to the newspaper.

Nampally police inspector Bala Gangi Reddy said the parents admitted during interrogation that they “killed her out of anger that her deed would spoil their reputation in the village.”

An honour killing refers to the murder of a person by a family member motivated by a belief that the victim had brought “shame” to the family.

It is thought the girl is one of the youngest ever victims of an honour killing in India.

Women’s rights activists say the government must pass legislation to recognise the crime as unique in order to target perpetrators for prosecution.

The lack of a separate law defining such crimes means some police officers still record them in the larger murder category.