Organizers said that thousands of Indian expatriates took part in protests in more than 130 cities across 25 countries on Sunday, demanding justice after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a hospital in the Indian city of Kolkata last month.
The protests began in large and small groups throughout Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and Singapore before spreading to cities in many European countries. Sixty protests are scheduled to be held in the United States.
The protests add to ongoing demonstrations across India following the murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate student on August 9.
Authorities arrested a suspect along with the former director of R.G. Kar Medical College, where the trainee doctor was studying.
At one protest in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, dozens of women wearing black gathered in a square, sang songs in Bengali, and held banners demanding accountability for the perpetrators of the crime and the safety of Indian women.
Deepti Jain, one of the protest organizers, said, “We are shocked and appalled by the news of this heinous crime committed against a young trainee doctor while she was performing her duties, with the cruelty, brutality, and disregard for human life.”
Jain, a British citizen and a graduate of the National Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, India, organized a protest in the United Kingdom last month attended by female doctors.
The Supreme Court of India has set tomorrow, Monday, as the date for the next session in the case of the murdered trainee.
