Protesters block train tracks, buses in India’s West Bengal

KOLKATA (Reuters): Protesters blocked train tracks, stopped buses, and shouted slogans in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Wednesday, the latest in a series of protests that have rocked the state since the rape and murder of a trainee doctor.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters marching towards the state secretariat on Tuesday, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in opposition in the state, to call for a 12-hour state-wide strike on Wednesday, to protest against what it said were police atrocities.

Thousands of protesters, most of them BJP workers, blocked roads and railway tracks and forced shops to shut down on Wednesday, while authorities braced for more protests throughout the day.

A top police official said 5,000 police personnel were deployed to quell any violence across West Bengal.

The protesters on Tuesday, many of them university students, were demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a staunch opponent of Modi, for her handling of the Aug 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in a government-run hospital in the state capital, Kolkata.

The attack on the 31-year-old doctor has caused nationwide outrage, similar to the widespread protests witnessed after a 2012 gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi, with campaigners saying women continue to suffer from high levels of sexual violence despite tougher laws.

A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the federal police have taken over the investigation.