Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked "how could anyone protect the culprits" in the rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and deplored letting politics interfere in such "unimaginable brutality".

"How can anyone protect the culprits of such evil? What happened to Asifa at Kathua is a crime against humanity. It cannot go unpunished," he said in a tweet.

"What have we become if we allow politics to interfere with such unimaginable brutality perpetrated on an innocent child," he asked.