Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 34
Protests brought an eastern Indian city to a standstill on Tuesday as police used teargas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people demanding the chief minister’s resignation.
The protest march was the latest in a series of ongoing demonstrations in West Bengal following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at a state-run hospital in the state’s capital. The doctor, 31, was found dead with visible marks of abuse in the seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata city on 9 August. An autopsy confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.
Police arrested a civil volunteer associated with the city’s police, Sanjay Roy, before the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a federal agency, amid calls for an unbiased probe.In the course of Tuesday’s demonstration, called by a student group, the protesters broke through barricades set up by police to stop their march to the state secretariat.
“We were protesting peacefully and, without provocation, police fired teargas canisters directly at us and used water cannons,” Sayan Lahiri, one of the organisers, told The Independent.
The organisers claimed the protest was led by students despite supporters of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party taking part in the rally. The protesters said they were seeking justice for didi, referring to the victim as elder sister, and action against corruption and political killings in the state.
One of India’s iconic tourist attractions – the Howrah Bridge – turned into a battleground as police in riot gear pushed back the protesters, using batons and teargas. “There were no party flags. Some were carrying the national flag, which the police snatched and threw on the streets,” Mr Lahiri, 30, said.
More than 6,000 police personnel were deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring city, Howrah, turning the areas around the secretariat into a fortress.
In the days since the doctor’s killing, public anger has boiled over into nationwide outrage and stirred protests. Junior doctors have refused to see non-emergency patients in many parts of the country and launched protests demanding justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals.
Mr Modi’s party has extended support to the protesting students, while senior state member Suvendu Adhikari claiming that Ms Banerjee’s administration was trying to suppress the rape and murder incident — a charge the state government has denied.
The party has called a 12-hour statewide strike on Wednesday to protest police action against Tuesday’s demonstration.
Source: Independent UK
