KOLKATA: Thousands of protesters blocked railway tracks, stopped buses and shouted slogans in the Indian state of West Bengal on Wednesday in the latest demonstration following the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the eastern state called for a 12-hour statewide protest strike after police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse a march on Tuesday.
Most of Wednesday's protesters were BJP workers, who also forced shops to close, as authorities braced for further disruption, with one police official saying 5,000 officers had been deployed to quell any violence.
Thousands of doctors, many of them on strike since the August 9 crime was uncovered, marched in the state capital Kolkata, demanding justice for the victim and greater workplace safety for doctors.
“If the state government had powers to make laws, I would have passed a law imposing capital punishment in cases of rape within seven days,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told a rally.
Banerjee, a staunch political foe of Modi who has promised swift justice, called on striking doctors to return to work and expressed solidarity with victims of sexual violence and their families.
Many university students were among the protesters on Tuesday, who had called for Banerjee to resign over her handling of the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor at a government-run hospital in Kolkata.
Indian President Droupadi Murmu said she was “shocked and horrified” by the incident.
“No civilized society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities,” the broadcaster said. CNN News 18 Murmu, a constitutional figure, told the news agency: PTI In his first comments on the crime: “Enough is enough.”
The national outrage sparked by the attack was similar to that which followed the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi, but activists said tougher laws had not deterred sexual violence against women.
A volunteer police officer was arrested for the crime and the federal police took over the investigation.
