NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people blocked streets and shut down businesses in parts of central India to protest the rape of a 7-year-old girl. The protesters on Saturday demanded the death penalty for two suspects arrested on suspicion of raping the girl and trying to slit her throat with a knife on Tuesday in Mandsaur, a town in Madhya Pradesh state. She was allegedly abducted while waiting to be picked up from school by her parents. Police officer Manoj Kumar Singh says the girl is in a stable condition in a hospital. Crimes against women in India have been rising despite tougher laws. India has been shaken by a series of sexual assaults since 2012, when a student was gang-raped and murdered on a moving New Delhi bus.