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.
Indian women lead night protests after doctor’s rape and murder Protesters told the BBC that some doctors and hospital staff were injured in the attack.
A hospital volunteer who worked at the hospital has been arrested 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 six-year-old Dalit girl.
After a crowd damaged a hospital where a female trainee doctor was raped and killed in the state of West Bengal, protests in India have grown more intense.
During the large-scale Reclaim the Night march that Kolkata city hosted on Wednesday to express opposition to the horrific crime, the hospital came under attack.
Numerous other Indian cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune, also saw smaller-scale protests.
This Saturday is a nationwide strike for non-emergency services, according to the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest association of physicians in the nation.
Political parties in West Bengal and doctor’s associations in other cities have also scheduled protest marches against the attack for this Friday and the following weekend.
At the Reclaim the Night march on Wednesday night, tens of thousands of women from all over the state took part in order to demand “independence to live in freedom and without fear.”.
Despite the fact that the protests were mainly nonviolent, there were altercations between the police and a few unidentified men who broke into the crime scene, the RG Kar Hospital, and ransacked its emergency room.
Videos of the men using sticks to smash beds and equipment went viral online.
Upon the rape and murder of a doctor, Indian women spearhead overnight demonstrations.
A number of doctors and hospital employees were hurt in the attack, protesters told the BBC. In the confusion, several police cars sustained damage as well, and tear gas was required to scatter the throng.
In relation to the incident, the Kolkata police have so far taken 19 people into custody.
The IMA declared on Thursday that non-emergency services would be suspended for a full day beginning at 06:00 local time [00:30 GMT] on Saturday, denouncing the attack as “hooliganism unleashed on protesting students.”.
Physicians are particularly susceptible to violence due to the nature of their work. The responsibility for ensuring doctors’ safety within hospitals and campuses rests with the authorities, according to a statement from the IMA.
“The nation’s sympathy for the doctors’ just cause is necessary for the IMA. “.”.
Following a cancellation on Tuesday, the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (Forda), another prominent doctors’ association, has also recommenced its strike.
Following federal Health Minister JP Nadda’s assurances to the protestors that their demands, which included a federal law to stop attacks on doctors, would be met, the demonstration was called off.
The incident has also set off a political blame game in West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) is being accused of masterminding the attack by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The accusation has been denied by the TMC, which also attributes the violence to “political outsiders.”.
The nation has been shocked by the rape of the 31-year-old female trainee physician.
Last week, her severely injured, half-naked body was found in a seminar hall. An employee of the hospital who volunteered there has been detained in relation to the crime.
Two additional rape incidents have made headlines in India since then.
An alleged sexual assault and murder occurred on a nurse’s way home from work in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Her body was discovered last week; she had vanished at the end of July. In relation to the crime, police have detained a man from the western state of Rajasthan.
As for the alleged gang rape and killing of a six-year-old Dalit girl, six people have been taken into custody in the northern state of Bihar. In the Muzaffarpur district, her disfigured body was discovered on Tuesday morning close to a pond in a village.
