Indian police have shot dead four men suspected of raping and killing a young female vet in Hyderabad last week.
The men were in police detention and were taken back to the scene of the crime on Friday.
The suspects were shot when they tried to steal the officers’ guns and escape, police told BBC Telugu.
However, human rights organisations including Amnesty International have called for investigations to determine if these were extrajudicial killings.
“Extrajudicial killings are not a solution to preventing rape,” said Avinash Kumar, executive director of Amnesty International India.
The 27-year-old rape victim’s charred remains were discovered last Thursday – leading to outrage and protests over alleged police inaction.
After news of the killings broke, the victim’s mother told the BBC, “justice has been done”, while neighbours celebrated with firecrackers, and thousands of people took to the streets to hail the police.
Ten armed policemen took the four suspects – who were not handcuffed – to the scene of the crime to reconstruct the incident early on Friday, said VC Sajjanar, police commissioner of the Hyderabad suburb of Cyberabad.
The toll plaza where the rape and murder took place is close to the suburb, which houses a number of global tech companies like Microsoft and Google.
The police were looking for the victim’s phone, power bank and watch which were reported missing, the police commissioner said.
“The four men got together and started to attack the officers with stones and sticks and also snatched away weapons from two officers and started firing,” the commissioner said, in response to questions about why the men had been killed.
“Although the officers maintained restraint and asked them to surrender, they continued to fire and attack us. This went on for 15 minutes. We retaliated and four accused got killed.”
Two officers suffered head injuries but these were not caused by bullets, he added. The two police officers were admitted to hospital, he said
“Let me tell you this. The law has taken its own course,” he added.
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.
BBC Telugu’s Deepthi Bathini visited the family in their home, where neighbours could be seen celebrating the news by setting off firecrackers and distributing sweets.
“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.
“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.”
The mother added that she wanted the law on sexual assault and rape to be stricter.
“Men should be scared to even stare at women – because they will be punished,” she said.
News of the police action has been widely celebrated on social media.
Many took to Twitter and Facebook to applaud the police, saying they had “delivered justice”.
The mother of a student who died after being gang-raped on a bus in capital Delhi in 2012 also hailed the killing.
“I am extremely happy with this punishment. Police have done a great job,” she told ANI news agency.
BBC Telugu reporter Satish Balla, reporting from the scene of the killings, said approximately 2,000 people had gathered, causing a huge traffic jam. Police were showered with rose petals.
