New Delhi: Two minor Dalit sisters were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field located about a kilometre away from their house in Nighasan police station limits of Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, on Wednesday, September 14. Six men have been arrested, police said on Thursday.According to NDTV, the mother of the two girls alleged that they were raped and then murdered by three young men from the neighbouring village in Nighasan police station limits. She said that the men first abducted them on motorcycles and later raped and killed them.The Hindu has reported their ages as 15 and 17.Lakhimpur Kheri Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjiv Suman told reporters, “We have arrested Junaid, Sohail, Hafizur Rehman, Karimuddin, Arif and Chottu in an overnight operation.”Junaid and Sohail were in a relationship with the two sisters, the SP said.“As per preliminary investigation, the two sisters left their home on Wednesday afternoon on the persuasion of Junaid and Sohail. Junaid and Sohail have confessed that they strangulated the girls after raping them,” said the SP. The victims were hanged so as to make it look like they were deaths by suicide, police said.Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said the trial of those arrested will be held in a fast-track court. “Government will take such an action that the souls of their coming generations will also shiver (sic),” he said, according to the news agency ANI.Villagers held a demonstration at the Nighasan Cross to protest against the killings.लखीमपुर खीरी के निघासन में दलित समाज की दो बच्चियों की फंदे पर लटकी हुई लाशें मिली है। परिजन निर्मम हत्या का आरोप लगा रहे है।घटना के विरोध में लोग सड़कों पर उतर गए है और पुलिस के खिलाफ नारेबाजी हो रही है। pic.twitter.com/D6uIvVUm9P— Devesh Lata Pandey (@iamdevv23) September 14, 2022SP Suman and Assistant Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh are understood to have spoken to the protesters. Several cops was deployed in the village.Opposition outrageSamajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have criticised the Uttar Pradesh government over the alleged increase of crimes against women in the state and compared the twin deaths with the Hathras gang-rape and murder.SP president Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet, “Murder of two Dalit sisters after kidnapping them in Nighasan police station area. Their father’s allegation on the police is very serious that they carried out ‘panchnama’ and post-mortem without the family’s consent. After farmers in Lakhimpur, the killing of Dalits is now a repetition of the murder of ‘Hathras’ daughter’.”निघासन पुलिस थाना क्षेत्र में 2 दलित बहनों को अगवा करने के बाद उनकी हत्या और उसके बाद पुलिस पर पिता का ये आरोप बेहद गंभीर है कि बिना पंचनामा और सहमति के उनका पोस्टमार्टम किया गया। लखीमपुर में किसानों के बाद अब दलितों की हत्या ‘हाथरस की बेटी’ हत्याकांड की जघन्य पुनरावृत्ति है। pic.twitter.com/gFmea4bAUc— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) September 14, 2022Mayawati wrote that the “heartbreaking incident” from Lakhimpur was linked to the fact that “criminals in UP are fearless because the priorities of the government are wrong.”The former chief minister said that the incident exposed the Adityanath government’s claims on reducing crime and maintaining law and order.2. यह घटना यूपी में कानून-व्यवस्था व महिला सुरक्षा आदि के मामले में सरकार के दावों की जबर्दस्त पोल खोलती है। हाथरस सहित ऐसे जघन्य अपराधों के मामलों में ज्यादातर लीपापोती होने से ही अपराधी बेखौफ हैं। यूपी सरकार अपनी नीति, कार्यप्रणाली व प्राथमिकताओं में आवश्यक सुधार करे। 2/2— Mayawati (@Mayawati) September 15, 2022Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter to condemn the incident.“The killings of the two sisters in Lakhimpur is heartbreaking. Family says the girls were abducted in broad daylight. Law and order in the state doesn’t improve by giving false advertisements in newspapers and TV everyday. After all, why are heinous crimes against women increasing in Uttar Pradesh? When will the government wake up?”A 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped allegedly by four ‘upper’ caste Thakur men in Hathras on September 14. She died on September 29 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital from injuries allegedly caused by the men.The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family members had alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites.(With PTI inputs)