Guns and Roses

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Police in the Indian city of Kolkata on Tuesday fired tear gas and water cannons against thousands of protesters demonstrating in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a medical student, demanding the resignation of a top regional official, CBS News reported.

Crowds gathered in the capital city of West Bengal state and marched toward its secretariat, demanding that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee step down. They accused her of mishandling the investigation into the killing, which occurred in one of the city’s state-run hospitals.

On Tuesday, local police barricaded the roads leading to the secretariat, while mobilizing 6,000 security personnel for the planned march, which had not been allowed by authorities, India’s NDTV reported.

Indian media showed footage of students and protesters scaling the barricades, while police used tear gas, water cannons, and batons to disperse them.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in opposition in West Bengal, called for a 12-hour strike in response to the police action. “Instead of justice, Mamata Banerjee’s police are turning on the peace-loving people of the state, who only wanted a safe and secure environment for women,” the party said.

Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress Party blamed the BJP for creating unrest in the city.

The protest was the latest of a series of demonstrations across India and South Asia following the Aug. 9 rape, murder, and alleged torture of a 31-year-old medical student at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Amid the outcry, junior doctors earlier this month went on strike to demand safer working conditions, while India’s Supreme Court created a hospital safety task force.

India maintains a grim record of sexual violence – with a reported 90 rapes per day in 2022 – despite amendments to the law following a rape case in 2012 that shocked the nation and introduced harsher penalties for rapists, including the death penalty.