NEW DELHI: An American tourist has accused two men of raping her in the popular Himalayan hill station of Dharamsala in northern India, police said on Thursday, the latest sex attack on a foreigner.

The 46-year-old woman has told police she was walking through a crowded market area of the town, famed for its Tibetan community and home to the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday evening when the attack occurred.

The woman, who had been travelling in India for about a month and was alone in Dharamsala, said she passed out after being grabbed by the unidentified men.

“She says that after waking up she realised that she had been assaulted...and decided to approach us a day later,” Abhishek Dhullar, police superintendent of Kangra district which includes Dharamsala, said.

“We have registered a case of rape and are investigating the matter. No one has yet been arrested,” Dhullar said.

Police are awaiting detailed results of the woman’s medical examination, seeking witnesses to the incident and studying CCTV footage of the area which was crowded at the time with shoppers and families, he said.

There were no immediate details on how the woman passed out or where she was when she came to.

India introduced tougher laws against sex offenders in the wake of the fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi in December 2012 that sparked mass street protests and international outrage.—AFP

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2015

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