A 19-year-old girl, Khushboo Khatun almost met her untimely death after she was buried alive for two hours, over property dispute.

She was on her way home from a market in India, when three men pounced on her and threw her into a 3ft deep pit before they filled it with sand and left her to die.

When Kushboo didn’t make it home, her father Muhammad Azim Ansari and mother Sanjana Khatun began to worry and started looking for her.

Eventually, Ansari noticed the nearby pit was randomly filled with earth and suspected foul play.

He quickly started digging, and called on other villagers to help, before they came across Khushboo in a semi-conscious state.

She had been buried for two full hours and was almost suffocating.

The teenager was eventually dragged from the rubble and taken to a nearby local government hospital suffering with shock.

They threw me in the pit, tried to bury me alive, so that they could kill me,’ Kushboo said of the ordeal.

The police are searching for suspects, Amit Shah, who is a local businessman, and two accomplices.

Superintendent Nawal Kishore Singh, from Samastipur police station, said Amit Shah had wanted to use land owned by Ansari for construction. As Ansari was not willing to co-operate, Amit used his daughter as a threat.

Superintendent Nawal Kishore Singh added: ‘It is a property dispute.

‘It’s been going on for several years. Amit has threatened Ansari many times in the past. Amit, along with two others, attacked a member of Ansari’s family as a warning. They threw the girl into a pit and filled it with the soil. We are now searching for all three suspects.’

Kushboo was discharged from hospital the following day and is now recovering at home