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       India’s Top Court Reverses Early Release of 11 Men Convicted of Gang Rape

       The case of Bilkis Bano, who was three months pregnant when she was attacked, became a powerful symbol of communal bloodshed and of the widespread violence against women in the country.

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       A rally in 2022 in Kolkata, India, in support of Bilkis Bano, who was raped in 2002. Credit...Dibyangshu Sarkar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

       By Sameer Yasir

       Reporting from New Delhi

       Jan. 8, 2024Updated 7:41 a.m. ET

       India’s top court on Monday restored life sentences for 11 Hindu men convicted of the gang rape of a Muslim woman in a case that became a powerful symbol of the widespread violence against Indian women and of communal tensions often exacerbated by Indian politicians.

       The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she and 15 members of her family tried to flee their village in 2002 during Hindu-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, in western India. The chief minister of Gujarat at the time was Narendra Modi, who is now the Indian prime minister.

       Ms. Bano and her family came under attack by heavily armed Hindu rioters, who, in addition to raping Ms. Bano, also killed her 3-year-old daughter by smashing her head on a rock and raped her mother and a cousin. The attackers were convicted of rape and murder.

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       Sameer Yasir covers news from India and other countries in the region. He is based in New Delhi. More about Sameer Yasir

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