The doctors who conducted a postmortem on the eight-year-old Kathua rape victim told a court here that the girl was sexually assaulted and she died of asphyxia, a lawyer has said.

As many as 54 witnesses have deposed before the court so far in the ongoing trial in the brutal rape and murder of the girl. The girl was allegedly repeatedly assaulted before being killed at a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district in January.