Protesters today blocked railway tracks, stopped buses and chanted slogans in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal in the latest in a series of protests that have rocked the state since the rape and murder of a young doctor, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Police used tear gas and water cannon yesterday to disperse protesters who had targeted the State Secretariat building. This prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in opposition in West Bengal, to call for a 12-hour general strike today to protest “police atrocities”.
Thousands of protesters blocked roads and rail lines, preventing shops from opening today and authorities bracing for more protests later in the day. A senior police official said 5,000 policemen have been deployed to quell any violence in West Bengal.
On Tuesday, protesters, many of them students, demanded the resignation of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a staunch opponent of Modi, over her handling of the August 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old resident doctor in a government hospital in the state capital of Kolkata. The attack on the doctor has sparked national outrage, similar to the mass protests in 2012 following the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi.
Campaigners say women continue to suffer high rates of sexual violence despite tougher laws. A police volunteer was arrested for the rape and murder of the young doctor, and the federal police took over the investigation of the case.