Police in India blasted protesters with water cannon and tear gas
Saturday as clashes broke out at a rally in New Delhi against rape,
leaving scores of people drenched and angry.
The demonstration was
prompted by wide public outrage over what police said was the gang-rape
and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the capital last
Sunday.
Her injuries were so
severe she spent days in intensive care in a city hospital, battling for
her life. Police said Saturday that she had recovered enough to give a
statement to a magistrate from her hospital bed the previous evening.
Dozens of police, some
equipped with bamboo canes, flanked the water cannon as it blasted out
on to the thousands of protesters assembled by New Delhi's historic
India Gate.
Some demonstrators
attempted to break through the security barriers blocking access to the
country's government district, parliament building and presidential
palace.
Others chanted, punched
the air in defiance and waved banners as the police sought to disperse
them from Raisina Hill, the seat of Indian power.
"Hang them till death," read the placard of one protester seeking capital punishment for rape suspects.
"Stop this shame," read another. A third said, "Give them the same physical torture."
Shouts of "We want
justice" also rose above the large and diverse crowd, symbolizing a
widely felt anger over attacks against women. Banners proclaiming the
same message were marked with a hangman's noose.
One young woman
protester, who said her leg was injured by a blow from a police baton,
lamented what she called a failure of democracy in the country.
"Today, I have seen democracy dying," she said.
New Delhi's police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said up to 35 protesters and nearly 40 police personnel were injured.
Thirty barricades were
damaged in the course of the protest, he said, and police fired 125 tear
gas shells. A number of vehicles were also damaged, he said.
Saturday's furious
protest was just the latest held across the country in the past week,
where official data show that rape cases have jumped almost 875% over
the past 40 years -- from 2,487 in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011.
New Delhi alone reported 572 rapes last year and more than 600 in 2012.
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