Silchar, Sep 5 (IANS): Two schoolgirls were hung from the two ends of the same rope from a tree in Assam's Karimganj district, a killing reminiscent of the Badaun gang-rape and murder in Uttar Pradesh.

Both the girls, one a Class 10 and the other a Class nine student, of a school in Nilambazar area had been missing since Wednesday evening, police said Friday.

The family members frantically looked for them, but failed to locate them.

The next morning, a relative of one of the girls spotted the bodies hanging from a tree.

The tree is located barely two km from the India-Bangladesh border.

Locals suspect that the girls were first raped and then killed to cover up the crime.

Police said that the girls were hanged with two ends of one rope.

In Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district, two teenaged cousins were gang-raped and hanged from a tree in Katra Sadatganj village, a crime that grabbed global headlines.

Karimganj Additional Superintendent of Police (HQ) Nabin Singh said that the bodies of the two girls have been sent for post mortem examination.

"A police team had gone to the area yesterday (Thursday) after being informed by the locals. We have recovered the bodies and sent those for postmortem and forensic test," he said.

"We are waiting for the postmortem report ...which can only confirm the exact cause of death and if there are any rape angle," said Singh.