August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

NEW DELHI: A 12-year-old girl in western India was killed by her mother after she made repeated requests to go to school, a report said on Tuesday.

The girl, identified as Phusi, lived in Udaysar village in Rajasthan state, and wanted to go to school but the nearest one was a long distance away and her family could not afford to buy her a bicycle for the trip, the Hindustan Times reported.

When Phusi continued to demand to go to school, her mother lost her temper and hit her with a rolling pin and the girl lost consciousness, the newspaper quoted a policeman as saying.

“The mother thought she had killed the girl and in a panic decided to make it appear like a suicide,” the officer said.

The mother, who has been arrested, tied a rope around the girl's neck, “hung her from the ceiling and rushed out screaming that Phusi had killed herself,” the policeman said.

The Rajasthan state government introduced a scheme to supply free bicycles to all school-age girls two years ago but it had not reached Phusi's village.—AFP