Protests Over Rape Turn Violent in Delhi

Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesIndian demonstrators in front of the India Gate monument in New Delhi overturn a police barricade during a protest calling for better safety for women, following the rape of a student last week.

Angry protests escalated into violence in India's capital on Sunday, after thousands of people gathered to demand justice for the victim of a recent gang rape in New Delhi and improved safety for women.

Protesters flocked to the India Gate monument throughout the d ay, despite police attempts to deter them and a hastily enacted ban on protesting in New Delhi, where they taunted the police and attacked the car of a member of Parliament. The police, in turn, fired tear gas and water cannons, beat protesters with bamboo sticks and arrested dozens.

By late afternoon Sunday, political parties had joined the crowd, increasing the number of confrontational encounters with the police. Protesters overturned a car, and clashes turned fierce.

The crowd, made up predominantly of young people, surrounded India Gate but was prevented from marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the palatial home of the president. Hundreds of police officers, many in blue helmets from the country's “Rapid Action Force,” blocked their way.

The angry crowds jostled with the police, calling them “cowardly,” “corrupt” and “inept,” as they tried to push through the cordon. “Why don't you come and join us?” one a gitated protester asked a senior police officer. “Aren't you angry at what happened?”

Sunday marked the seventh day of protests in India after medical student was raped Dec. 16 on a moving bus by several men, the latest in a series of violent crimes against women in northern India. The victim of the gang rape suffered severe intestinal injuries after being attacked with an iron rod during the assault and was battling for her life, doctors said last week.

“We are not happy with this piecemeal, drop-in-the-ocean, inane response of the government” to concerns about women's safety, said Albeena Shakil, 36, an activist who helped mobilize the protests. “We want some big changes,” she said. “If the administration will not do it, who will?”

Another protester, Kulsoom Rashid, 27, said she had been tear-gassed Sunday afternoon.

“This is how they are responding,” she said, seething, as she rubbed her eyes vigorously. “Hundreds of rapists are running scot-free and the entire Delhi police is standing here to stop people like me?”

Women's and students' groups at the protests had compiled a list of four demands: They would like the courts to fast-track about 100,000 cases involving allegations of rape; for the Indian police to pledge to register complaints of rape when they happen; for Parliament to hold a special session to pass laws on rape, sexual harassment and child abuse; and for the Delhi police commissioner to be fired for his handling of the protests.

The police tried to prevent Sunday's demonstration from taking place. Early in the morning, nearby subway stations were closed, and the roads leading to India Gate were blocked in an attempt to deter protesters.

Protesters who had camped in the area overnight were dragged away, and more than two dozen were arrested.

The police said in a statement on Sunday morning that they had also imposed Section 144, an emergency measure i n the country's criminal procedure code aimed at preventing riots, and had outlawed large gatherings of people in New Delhi. They asked protesters to go to the Ram Lila grounds, near the northern neighborhood of Old Delhi, instead.

Still, protesters poured into the India Gate area, which faces Delhi's grand colonial-era government seat, throughout Sunday, arriving on foot. Several said that footage of the police dragging protesters away Sunday morning had inspired them to come.

“Many students who were protesting peacefully were attacked,” said Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who had joined the protest with her daughter. “These are patriotic and respectable citizens. You cannot respond to them in this ham-handed manner,” she said.

The emergency measure remained in effect in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon, said Rajan Bhagat, a public relations officer with the Delhi police, but would not be invoked at Ram Lila. If protesters moved there, “normal life of the city won't be disturbed,” Mr. Bhagat said.

The protest Sunday paralyzed the Edwin Lutyens-designed center of Delhi, where top government officials live in grand homes set on acres of land.

The president of the governing Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, and her son, Rahul, the party's general secretary, met a few protesters Sunday morning at Ms. Gandhi's residence, local news stations reported. “I am with you,” Ms. Gandhi told protesters, adding that “justice will be delivered,” according to the news agency ANI.