Five charity workers gang-raped in India

NEW DELHI, June 23 (AFP) - Five women working for a charity in remote eastern India were abducted and gang-raped at gunpoint, police said Friday, in the latest horrific sex assault in the country.

The women said in their complaint they were performing a play to raise awareness about human trafficking in the largely tribal Khunti district of Jharkhand state on Tuesday when they were abducted. The assailants shot videos of the attack and threatened the women if they went to the police.

Police have rounded up some supporters of Pathalgadi, an anti-establishment self-rule movement popular in several tribal villages. Pathalgadi supporters resent outsiders and do not allow them to enter or settle in their area.

Khunti is also a hotbed of Maoists, armed guerrillas who have been waging a decades-long insurgency mainly for land rights.