After news of the killings broke, the victim’s mother told the BBC that “justice has been done”.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, neighbours celebrated with firecrackers, and thousands of people took to the streets to hail the police.<\/p>\n
What happened on Friday?<\/h2>\n
Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar told BBC Telugu that police took the accused to the scene to reconstruct the crime.<\/p>\n
Police shot the men when they tried to grab the officers’ guns and escape, he said.<\/p>\n
Two police officers were also injured.<\/p>\n
The police were heavily criticised after the rape and murder of the vet – particularly when the victim’s family accused them of inaction for two hours.<\/p>\n
How have the victim’s family reacted?<\/h2>\n
BBC Telugu’s Deepthi Bathini visited the family in their home, where neighbours could be seen celebrating the news by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets.<\/p>\n
“I can’t put it into words. I felt happiness but also grief because my daughter will never come home,” the victim’s mother said.<\/p>\n
“My daughter’s soul is at peace now. Justice has been done. I never thought we would get justice. No other girl should experience what my daughter did.”<\/p>\n
The mother added that she wants the law on sexual assault and rape to be “stricter”.<\/p>\n
“Men should be scared to even stare at women – because they will be punished.”<\/p>\n
The victim’s sister said the police action was “very unexpected”.<\/p>\n
“I was expecting court trials and the court to deliver justice. This will not bring my sister back, but it is a great relief. Because of the police action, people will think twice before they do something like this again,” she said.<\/p>\n
What has the wider reaction been?<\/h2>\n
News of the police action has been widely celebrated on social media.<\/p>\n
Many took to Twitter and Facebook to applaud the police, saying they “delivered justice”.<\/p>\n
The mother of a student who died after being gang-raped on a bus in capital Delhi in 2012 has also hailed the killing.<\/p>\n
“I am extremely happy with this punishment. Police have done a great job,” she told ANI news agency.<\/p>\n
BBC Telugu reporter Satish Balla, reporting from the spot of the killings, said approximately 2,000 people have gathered, causing a huge traffic jam.<\/p>\n
Vehicles have come to a standstill on the highway, where people are shouting “hail the police”.<\/p>\n
At the scene of the encounter, people earlier showered the police with rose petals and distributed sweets, our reporter added.<\/p>\n
But a few have also questioned the police’s version of events.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prakash Singh, a retired police officer and a key architect of police reforms, told the BBC that the killings were “entirely avoidable”.<\/p>\n “Abundant caution should be taken when people in custody are being taken to the court or the scene of the crime,” he said.<\/p>\n “They should be secured, handcuffed and properly searched before they are taken out. All kinds of things can happen if the police are not careful.”<\/p>\n But Mr Singh said it was too early to say if the incident was an extrajudicial killing – known popularly in India as an “encounter killing”.<\/p>\n In the days after the rape and murder, thousands of people protested at Hyderabad police station, insisting the killers face the death penalty.<\/p>\n Jaya Bachchan, a former Bollywood star who is now a MP in India’s upper house of parliament, said earlier this week that the accused men should be “lynched”.<\/p>\n “I know it sounds harsh, but these kind of people should be brought out in public and lynched,” she said during a parliamentary debate on the incident.<\/p>\n Several other MPs from across the political spectrum also condemned the brutal gang-rape and murder.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the country, there were other protests and vigils for the victim, who cannot be named under Indian law.<\/p>\n The victim left home on her motorbike at about 18:00 local time (12:30 GMT) ten days ago to go to a doctor’s appointment.<\/p>\n She called family later to say she had a flat tyre, and a lorry driver had offered to help. She said she was waiting near a toll plaza.<\/p>\n Efforts to contact her afterwards were unsuccessful, and her body was discovered under a flyover by a milkman on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n Last week, three police officers were suspended when the victim’s family accused them of not acting quickly enough when the woman was reported missing.<\/p>\n Officers had suggested she may have eloped, relatives told the National Commission for Women, a government body.<\/p>\n Rape and sexual violence against women have been in focus in India since\u00a0the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman<\/a>\u00a0on a bus in the capital, Delhi.<\/p>\n But there has been no sign that crimes against women are abating.<\/p>\n According to government figures, police registered 33,658 cases of rape in India in 2017, an average of 92 rapes every day.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"People](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/10B14\/production\/_110027386_whatsappimage2019-12-06at9.30.18am.jpg\")
<\/span>How did the vet’s murder unfold?<\/h2>\n
Are women any safer in India today?<\/h2>\n