{"id":8553,"date":"2024-08-28T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T09:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=8553"},"modified":"2024-08-28T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T09:18:11","slug":"bjp-bengal-strike-protesters-block-train-tracks-buses-in-eastern-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/asia\/bjp-bengal-strike-protesters-block-train-tracks-buses-in-eastern-india\/","title":{"rendered":"BJP Bengal strike: Protesters block train tracks, buses in eastern India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KOLKATA, Aug 28 (Reuters) &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/india\/indian-police-fire-teargas-hundreds-protesting-over-kolkata-doctors-rape-murder-2024-08-27\/\">fired<\/a>\u00a0tear-gas and water cannon to disperse protesters marching towards the state secretariat on Tuesday, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 through the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A top police official said 5,000 police personnel were deployed to quell any violence across West Bengal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 Aug. 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in a government-run hospital in the state capital, Kolkata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/india\/india-doctors-end-one-strike-over-colleagues-rape-murder-2024-08-18\/\">attack<\/a>&nbsp;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the federal police have taken over the investigation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KOLKATA, Aug 28 (Reuters) &#8211; 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\u00a0fired\u00a0tear-gas and water cannon to disperse protesters marching towards the [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,84,396],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-india","category-latest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}