New Delhi: A 13-year-old girl was raped and strangled to death in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, following which two men have been arrested.Police said on Sunday that the incident took place on Friday, under the Isanagar police station limits. The post-mortem report has confirmed that the teenager was raped and was killed by strangulation, they said.The post mortem report of the 13-year-old girl (whose body was found in a field in Isanagar), confirms rape: Satyendra Kumar, SP Lakhimpur Kheri https://t.co/6peOBSa0vO pic.twitter.com/SRAKCnJ8PE— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 16, 2020According to reports, the girl went to the family’s field on Friday afternoon but did not return home later that evening. Her parents and relatives started looking for her and near the sugarcane field, they noticed some marks that suggested she may have been dragged somewhere. Following these marks, the family members discovered the girl’s body, the police said.Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Dhaurahra, Abhishek Pratap along with Isanagar police officials conducted preliminary investigations, which led to the arrest of two men on Friday night.“On the complaint by the deceased’s father, two youths identified as Sanjay and Santosh have been arrested,” DSP Pratap told news agency PTI.An FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code besides the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the SC/ST Act, he said.Pratap said reports that the girl was brutalised were not true. Earlier, there were reports about injuries to the girl’s eyes and tongue. However, the post-mortem conducted by a panel of doctors showed no such thing, he said.“The post-mortem report stated the cause of the girl’s death was strangulation after rape,” he said.Recently, several cases of sexual assault on minor girls have been reported. In a span of ten days, four cases of minors being raped or assaulted were reported in Delhi alone.In UP last week, a six-year-old girl in Hapur city was kidnapped and raped. On Friday, the police arrested the accused after a shootout. On Sunday, another report of a teenager being raped and tortured in Gorakpur surfaced.Opposition parties attack governmentOpposition parties on Sunday hit out at the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government over the rape and murder, charging that atrocities on women and children in the state are on the rise.Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the incident has shaken humanity. “The rape and murder of a teenage girl in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP is an incident, which has shaken humanity. In the BJP rule, atrocities on children and women are at an all-time high,” he charged in a tweet written in Hindi.“Why is the BJP government shielding those who are involved in rape, kidnapping, murder and other crime,” the former state chief minister asked.Senior Congress leader Jitin Prasada on Sunday said, “The inhuman act with a girl has put humanity to shame. This is an extremely saddening incident. In this episode, the police must initiate such a strong action that it becomes a deterrent for criminals.”In a tweet in Hindi, Prasad asked, “What was the police doing that such a big incident took place. Action must be taken against the guilty persons. The safety of the family (of the girl) should be looked into”.Terming the incident as very saddening and shameful, BSP supremo Mayawati had on Saturday demanded strict action against the guilty.“What is the difference between the SP government and the present BJP government… The BSP demands that the government should initiate strong action against the guilty in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and also in the Azamgarh incident [where a headman was killed],” she said in a tweet.(With PTI inputs from Lakhimpur Kheri)