Indian doctors step up protests after colleague's brutal murder

KOLKATA - Indian doctors stepped up nationwide protests and strikes Friday after the rape and murder of a colleague, a brutal killing that has focused outrage on the chronic issue of violence against women.

The discovery of the 31-year-old's bloodied body on 9 August at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata sparked nationwide protests.

In Kolkata, hundreds of doctors and other healthcare workers gathered demanding action, with protests also held Friday in the capital New Delhi, and Nangpur in Maharashtra state.

"We want justice", doctors chanted in Kolkata, waving handwritten signs that read: "No safety, no service!"

Multiple medical unions in both government and private systems have backed the strike.

"We are intensifying our protests... to demand justice for our colleague," Suvrankar Datta said Friday, from the government-run All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi.

Those in government hospitals across several states on Monday halted elective services "indefinitely" in protest.

Thousands marched through the streets of Kolkata overnight Wednesday to condemn the killing, with a candlelight rally at midnight coinciding with the start of India's independence day celebrations.

The Indian Medical Association has called for a "nationwide withdrawal of services" for 24 hours starting Saturday, with suspension of all non-essential and medical procedures at private hospitals.

Indian media reported that the murdered doctor was found in the teaching hospital's seminar hall, suggesting she had gone there for a rest during a long shift.

An autopsy confirmed sexual assault, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV, and in a petition to the court the victim's parents said they suspected their daughter was gang-raped.

'ATROCITIES'

Though police have detained a man who worked at the hospital helping people navigate busy queues, state government officers have been accused of mishandling the case.

The man, his head covered in a white sack, was taken Friday for a health checkup, escorted by dozens of armed police.

Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India - an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people.

For many, the gruesome nature of this attack has invoked comparisons with the horrific 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.

That woman became a symbol of the socially conservative country's failure to tackle sexual violence against women.

Her death sparked huge, and at times violent, demonstrations in Delhi and elsewhere.

Under pressure, the government introduced harsher penalties for rapists, and the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Several new sexual offences were also introduced - including for stalking - and officials who refuse to register rape complaints can now be jailed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday demanded swift punishment for those who commit "monstrous" deeds against women.

"There is anger for atrocities committed against our mothers and sisters," Modi said.

"Monstrous behaviour against women should be severely and quickly punished," he said.

Doctors have also demanded the implementation of the Central Protection Act, a bill to protect healthcare workers from violence.