indian women beaten
© ANI
Two women were beaten and had their heads shaved as retribution for reportedly resisting an attempted rape by a government official and his friends in Bihar, India. They were then paraded through the village by their attackers.

Seven men barged into the house of a 48-year-old woman and her 19-year-old daughter in Bhagwanpur, in the Vaishali district of Bihar, and allegedly tried to rape the teenager, the Hindustan Times reports.

"Around 6.30 pm, half a dozen armed men forcibly entered my house and attempted to rape me. When my mother tried to save me, they started beating us," the young woman told police.

The women say they were hit with wooden sticks and dragged outside. Police said that a barber was called to shave the pair's heads before they were marched through the village as a form of punishment.

Ward councillor Mohammad Khurshid is accused of being the leader of the group, and the girl told police that the local government official had been harassing her for several weeks.

"We have been beaten very badly. I have injuries all over my body and my daughter too has some injuries," her mother said of their ordeal.

A video of the incident went viral on social media, and Khurshid and the barber were arrested on Thursday. The investigation is ongoing and police are looking for the remaining five suspects.