Protests have intensified in India after a mob vandalised a hospital where a female trainee doctor was raped and murdered in West Bengal state.
The hospital was attacked on Wednesday during the massive Reclaim the Night march held in Kolkata city to protest against the brutal crime.
Smaller protests were also held in many other Indian cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) – the country’s largest grouping of doctors – has announced a nationwide strike of non-emergency services on Saturday.
Doctor’s associations in other cities and political parties in West Bengal have also planned marches on Friday and over the weekend to protest against the attack.
Tens of thousands of women across the state participated in the Reclaim the Night march on Wednesday night to demand “independence to live in freedom and without fear”.
Though the protests were largely peaceful, clashes erupted between the police and a small group of unidentified men who barged into the RG Kar Hospital – the site of the crime – and ransacked its emergency ward.
Videos circulated online showed the men smashing beds and equipment with sticks.
Protesters told the BBC that some doctors and hospital staff were injured in the attack. Some police vehicles were also damaged in the chaos and tear gas had to be used to disperse the crowd.
The Kolkata police have arrested 19 people, external in connection with the incident so far.
On Thursday, the IMA condemned the attack, external, calling it “hooliganism unleashed on protesting students” and announced the withdrawal of non-emergency services for 24 hours starting at 06:00 local time [00:30 GMT] on Saturday.
“Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses,” the IMA said in a statement.
“The IMA requires the sympathy of the nation with the just cause of its doctors.”
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (Forda) – another top doctors’ association – has also resumed its strike after calling it off on Tuesday.
The protest was called off after federal Health Minister JP Nadda assured its members that their demands – including a federal law to curb attacks on doctors – would be met.
The incident has also sparked a political blame game in West Bengal, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the governing Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) of orchestrating the attack.
The TMC has refuted the allegation and has blamed “political outsiders” for stoking the violence.
The rape of the 31-year-old female trainee doctor has shocked the country.
Her half-naked body bearing extensive injuries was discovered in a seminar hall last week. A hospital volunteer who worked at the hospital has been arrested in connection with the crime.
Since then, two more incidents of rape have made headlines in India.
In the northern state of Uttarakhand, a nurse was allegedly raped and killed while returning home from work. She had gone missing at the end of July and her body was found last week. Police have arrested a man from the western state of Rajasthan, external in connection with the crime.
Meanwhile, six people have been arrested in the northern state of Bihar for the alleged gang-rape and murder of a teenage Dalit girl. Her mutilated body was found near a pond in a village in Muzaffarpur district on Tuesday morning. (BBC).
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