Indian police clash with protesters in New Delhi

Riot police in the Indian capital, New Delhi, have clashed with a large number of demonstrators protesting against the government’s failure to provide better security for women.

On Sunday, dozens of demonstrators poured onto the streets of New Delhi to express resentment against the alleged murder of a 19-year-old girl last week.

The protesters expressed their fury by trying to break through barricades erected around the police headquarters.

In return, the police used water canon to disperse the crowd of protesters.

The victim’s family and local media reports say the eleventh grader was stabbed about three dozen times after trying to avoid being harassed by two men in a central Delhi neighborhood late last Thursday.

Police say they have detained two brothers suspected of having links to the murder and are probing the latest case which has once again raised the issue of women’s security in India.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s local administration has accused the police of abetting the killing by “inaction.”

Satyendra Jain, the Delhi home minister and a politician from Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party, in a letter to the city’s police chief, Bhim Sain Bassi, late Saturday strongly criticized the police for its inability to handle the case.

The local official has also censured the police for never registering several complaints the victim had filed against the perpetrators – two brothers from the locality – since 2013.

“It is beyond comprehension that a crime has been perpetrated in the capital city despite prior complaints,” Jain said, adding “The inaction of police failed to provide security to the deceased girl.”

The assault is the latest in a string of crimes against women that have sparked nationwide outrage and protests.

In mid-March, an elderly nun was gang-raped by a group of bandits in a Christian missionary school in India’s West Bengal area.