Father of murdered Kolkata doctor says ‘she went to serve people’
Doctors in India continue to protest and demand tougher legislation to protect healthcare workers following the rape and murder of a junior doctor in the eastern state of West Bengal.
The protests erupted earlier this month after the trainee, 31, was found dead at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on 9 August. Her partially naked body with visible marks of abuse was discovered in one of the seminar halls in the emergency building of the hospital by her colleagues. The autopsy report confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted and smothered to death.
A civil volunteer named Sanjay Roy, associated with the state police, was arrested and the case was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation, a federal agency, amid calls for a transparent inquiry.
But the victim’s father claimed that more than one person was involved.
“The place where I sent my daughter to make a living and serve the people not protect her,” he told NDTV. “It’s very sad.”
“It is impossible that only one suspect is involved. There are more suspects at large.”
The murder has sparked a strike by doctors, disrupting non-emergency hospital services across the country.
They have demanded a transparent investigation into the murder, resignation of hospital officials, adequate security for all medical staff, and speedy ratification of a law for the protection of healthcare workers.
Hundreds and thousands of people, mostly women, have also marched in West Bengal, seeking a reckoning with violence against women.
The government has urged doctors to return to duty while it sets up a committee to recommend protection measures for healthcare professionals.
“Our cease-work and sit-in will continue till our demands are met,” said Dr Aniket Mahata, spokesperson for protesting junior doctors at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
In the national capital Delhi, protesting doctors carrying “Justice delayed is justice denied” placards were stopped by police as they tried to set up free outpatient services outside the federal health ministry.
Nearly a million doctors reportedly took part in the strike on Saturday.
The Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest union of doctors and medical workers, called on the public to support its “struggle for justice”.
It described the junior doctor’s murder a “crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women”.
“The strike is in response to a tragedy that has never happened in the history of the medical profession in India. It’s not that we want to do it but the situation demands we set an example that doctors can also take to the streets,” Aviral Mathur, president of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association, told The Independent.
In solidarity with the protesting doctors, thousands of supporters of West Bengal’s two biggest football clubs marched in Kolkata on Sunday evening with chants of “We want justice”. Unprecedented scenes unfolded as supporters of two rival teams protested together despite the derby match being called off due to possible violence at the stadium.
The Kolkata police have restricted gatherings of more than five persons around the RG Kar hospital following vandalism in the emergency ward, which housed the crime scene.
Peaceful midnight protests at the hospital last week were marred by a mob of men who broke through police barricades, entered the campus and went on a rampage.
Police have said the crime scene on the third floor was untouched and that 37 people involved in the vandalism were arrested.
They have also arrested a second-year college student for allegedly sharing a “provocative social media post” against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The student has been accused of inciting hatred and encouraging people to assassinate the chief minister through her Instagram stories.
Ms Banerjee’s administration on Saturday advised medical colleges and hospitals in the state to avoid allotting night duties to women doctors “as far as possible”.
Alapan Bandyopadhyay, principal adviser to the chief minister, said a new initiative called night companion will be implemented for the safety of women doctors.
There will be separate toilets and restrooms for women doctors along with “safe zones” that will remain under blanket surveillance, he added. “Shifts will be arranged in such a manner that in case of night duties the women doctors can function in pairs.”
Sandip Ghosh, former principal of the medical college and hospital, was interrogated by the CBI for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
He resigned last week following public outrage over his remark that “it was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night”.
India’s Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the rape and murder case and will hear it on Tuesday.
India’s Modi likely to meet Zelensky in Ukraine after Russia trip
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will make his first visit to Ukraine later this week, the foreign ministry confirmed on Monday.
He will likely fly to Kyiv between 21-23 August, about a month after he met Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Mr Modi will have talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. They previously met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan in May and discussed trade and expanding ties.
They have also spoken by phone several times since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Modi will most likely visit Poland as well, the foreign ministry said.
The visit to Ukraine is intended to reassure India’s partners in the West, who were apparently not too happy with Mr Modi’s visit to Moscow on 8-9 July.
Mr Zelensky said at the time, without naming Mr Modi, that it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.
Mr Modi’s visit coincided with a series of daytime Russian attacks across Ukraine, which killed 41 people and wounded more than 150.
New Delhi has adopted a carefully balanced policy on the Ukraine war, neither criticising nor condoning it, and has sought to increase trade links with Russia while building stronger ties with the West.
The Indian leader did, however, offer some veiled criticism of what was happening in Ukraine at the end of his meeting with Mr Putin. “Be it war, conflicts, terror attacks – everyone who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives,” Mr Modi said. “But when innocent children are murdered, when we see innocent children dying, it is heart-wrenching. That pain is immense.”
He reiterated New Delhi’s position that Moscow and Kyiv should end the war through diplomacy. “Solutions are not possible on the battleground,” he said.
The South Asian country has offered to support measures to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Mr Modi’s upcoming visit to one of India’s oldest allies was aimed at improving bilateral trade and cooperation in areas ranging from nuclear energy to medicine, officials said.
India has traditionally had close economic and defence ties with Moscow and it has bought vast quantities of oil from Russia despite Western sanctions, explaining that it needed to secure its own interests first.
Kyiv, meanwhile, has asked New Delhi to help rebuild its economy, with Ukranian officials inviting investment from Indian companies at a business summit in January.
China and Philippines trade blame as vessels collide in disputed water
China and the Philippines traded blame after their vessels collided during a confrontation near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Monday.
Two boats were left damaged near the Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands in the latest flare-up of tensions after the two countries had agreed to try to ease tensions and manage disagreements at sea.
China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of deliberately crashing one of its ships into a Chinese vessel. “The Philippine side is entirely responsible for the collision,” spokesperson Gan Yu said.
Beijing said two Philippine ships entered the waters near the Sabina shoal despite the Chinese coast guard’s warning and intentionally collided with one of China’s boats at 3.24am local time.
“We warn the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocation,” otherwise it will bear all the consequences arising from that,” the spokesperson added.
The Philippines disputed the Chinese account of the confrontation. Manila said two of its ships – BRP Bagacay and BRP Cape Engano – “encountered unlawful and aggressive manoeuvres” from Chinese coast guard vessels while en route to Patag and Lawak islands to resupply personnel stationed in the area.
“These dangerous manoeuvres resulted in collisions, causing structural damage to both Philippine coast guard vessels,” said Jonathan Malaya, a spokesperson for the country’s South China Sea task force.
The BRP Cape Engano was left with a 5-inch hole on the deck while the second ship suffered minor structural damage, the task force said.
The Philippine coast guard, it added, “stands firm in its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our maritime domain while addressing any threats to our national interests”.
The Chinese coast guard posted a video of what it described as a Philippine ship colliding with one of its vessels.
The same Philippine vessel, having been prevented from entering Sabina Shoal’s waters, sailed into the Second Thomas Shoal waters, it added.
China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands, known in Chinese as Nansha Islands, including the Sabina Shoal and its adjacent waters. The Chinese name for Sabina Shoal is Xianbin Reef.
Sabina Shoal, which lies about 140km west of the Philippine island province of Palawan, has become a flashpoint in the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines.
It is close to the Second Thomas Shoal, occupied by the Philippines, which has witnessed many confrontations between the coast guards of the two countries in recent years.
The Philippine coast guard deployed one of its main patrol ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina in April after Filipino scientists found submerged piles of crushed corals in its shallows that sparked suspicion that China could be bracing to build a structure on the atoll. The Chinese coast guard responded by deploying a vessel of its own to Sabina.
Additional reporting by agencies.
Melbourne orchestra admits ‘error’ at cancelling show over Gaza
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has admitted that it made an “error” in cancelling a performance by acclaimed pianist Jayson Gillham after his remarks about Israel’s war in Gaza and added that it will conduct an independent review of its policies.
Mr Gillham was scheduled to perform works by Beethoven, Chopin and others, including a piece by composer Connor D’Netto titled “Witness”, dedicated to the journalists of Gaza.
The performance was set to be held at the Melbourne Town Hall with the MSO on 15 August, but was cancelled after Mr Gillham’s performance on 11 August, where he spoke about Israel’s actions against Palestinian journalists, labelling them “war crimes”.
The MSO removed the British-Australian pianist from the concert, stating that he put the orchestra in a “difficult situation”. Soon after, the entire concert was cancelled due to safety concerns, with the MSO saying they are now trying to reschedule with Mr Gillham.
“The MSO acknowledges that an error was made in asking Jayson to step back from his performance on Thursday 15 August,” a statement on the event page said.
“We have been engaging constructively with Jayson and his management and are seeking to reschedule the concert.
“While the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra maintains that a concert platform is not an appropriate stage for political comment, we acknowledge Jayson’s concerns for those in the Middle East and elsewhere.
“We recognise the strength of feelings of all parties on this matter and particularly acknowledge the dedication and commitment demonstrated by all our musicians and staff this week.”
On Friday, the orchestra’s musicians passed a vote of no confidence in senior management after the cancellation, writing in a letter that this incident was a “culmination of years of unresolved concerns, ongoing mismanagement, and a consistent decline in workplace culture that has undermined the wellbeing of employees and the long-term success of the company,” reported The Guardian.
“We no longer have faith in the abilities of our senior management to make decisions that are in the best interests of the company at large,” the letter added.
The MSO board said that they would “conduct an independent external review into our policies, procedures and processes”, and “canvas decisions” that led to Mr Gillham’s event being cancelled.
“The review will help ensure our policies and processes reflect best practice in the contemporary environment.
“The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is determined to ensure we have the protocols in place that are fit for purpose for our organisation and the role we play within the community.”
Mr Gillham responded to the MSO’s statement, seemingly accepting the apology.
“I hold my relationship with the MSO, its players and audience with the highest regard and look forward to our continued working relationship in years to come,” he said in a statement.
Last October, Israel launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza following a Hamas attack that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel. Israel has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 113 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed while covering the war in Gaza.
In a concert at Melbourne’s Iwaki Auditorium hosted by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) on 11 August, the 37-year-old Queensland pianist said, before he performed “Witness”, “Over the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists”.
“A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets,” he added.
“The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.”
In a statement to The Guardian, Mr D’Netto said he had written “Witness”“a few months back” for Mr Gillham.
“I dedicated it to the journalists in Gaza, their bravery and sacrifice had been on my mind a lot.
“The piece isn’t necessarily ‘about’ anything, it is a quite simple, perhaps slightly melancholy, meditative piece.”
Israel launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza following a Hamas attack last October that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. Hamas militants also took more than 250 hostages. Israel has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The fighting has displaced nearly 90 per cent of its 2.2 million population, according to the UN, and left around half a million facing starvation.
Thailand’s youngest ever prime minister sworn in by king
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thailand’s divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, was sworn in as the country’s youngest-ever prime minister on Sunday.
The 37-year-old received a royal letter of endorsement days after she won the support of nearly two-thirds of the country’s parliament.
She takes the place of another leader from the same Pheu Thai party, Srettha Thavisin, who was ousted by the courts after he appointed a lawyer convicted of bribery to his cabinet.
Ms Shinawatra, widely known by her nickname “Ung Ing,” becomes the third member of her family to serve as Thailand’s prime minister, following in the footsteps of her billionaire father and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.
Her father was removed from office and forced into exile in a coup in 2006 after he was convicted of corruption and defaming the monarchy.
However, he returned to Thailand last year as the Pheu Thai party formed a government.
He was initially convicted of corruption and defaming the monarchy, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison but was released on parole in February.
While Mr Shinawatra does not have any formal role, he is seen as the de facto leader of the Pheu Thai party, which is at the head of a coalition including military parties.
On Sunday both the father and daughter walked holding hands wearing white civil servants’ uniforms used for royal ceremonies.
Ms Shinawatra has acknowledged her family ties but insisted she is her “own person”.
“I have my own things and my own goals that I have to achieve in the future, but of course all the comments from him (have) value to me,” she said.
Observers, however, say they are yet to see the new prime minister carve her own niche with policies that distinguish her from those of her party or her father.
The newly sworn-in leader thanked the King and the Thai people, saying she will perform her duties “with an open mind”.
Ms Shinawatra said she would “make every square inch of Thailand a space that allows Thai people to dare to dream, dare to create and dare to dictate their own future”.
She is expected to face several policy challenges immediately including the rollout of a promised economic stimulus.
With the country’s economy in a slump, the government is yet to roll out its flagship cash handout programme of 10,000 baht (about $275) to its 50 million citizens, a giveaway totalling about $14.25bn.
The stimulus project faces steep challenges including securing sources of funding and in a recent interview, Ms Shinawatra said she will need to “continue to listen to opinions” to push forward the plan.
Climbing in Himalayas I followed in the footsteps of a truly evil man
For most, Aleister Crowley is known as an occultist and poet who, living around the turn of the 20th century, scandalised Victorian society with his talk – and practice – of the dark arts. At his flat in Holborn, and later his home on the shores of Loch Ness, he raised hell with sex- and drug-fuelled “magick” and machinations outrageous even today.
Crowley, though, was more than just a poseur majeur who had, in his own words, “gone over to Satan’s side”. From a young age, he was a keen climber and mountaineer, a dangerous obsession that would take him from the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head to the great snowy ranges of the Himalayas.
He arrived at the hill station of Darjeeling in April 1905 for the climax of his climbing career – a wildly ambitious attempt on the world’s third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga.
At the time few had tried to climb any of the world’s 14 mountains over 8,000m. The legendary British climber Albert Mummery had died in 1895 on 8,126m Nanga Parbat, taking two Gurkha soldiers with him. Crowley himself had been a member of the only other “serious” attempt – a haphazard expedition up K2 in 1902, led by his friend and mentor Oscar Eckenstein.
Beset by abysmal weather, it came to a head as a delirious Crowley pulled a revolver on his young tentmate at 6,000m above sea level.
Now, as a party of five Europeans and more than 200 local porters and guides started north from Darjeeling en route to the Sikkim Himalaya, all they had to look forward to was hardship and privation. Crowley relished the prospect. He well knew that they approached a mountain shrouded in superstition and religious belief. He was ready to lock horns with the “Demon of Kangchenjunga”.
Almost 120 years on, I’m closing in on the summit of Dzongri Top, a 4,250m peak offering a good look at the giant mountain ridge running south from Kangchenjunga.
My wife and I kick small steps in fresh snow at five in the morning, working hard at an altitude where we breathe around half the oxygen available at sea level. We reach the top just in time to see the sunrise, watching as a veil of darkness is drawn back over the impossible landscape before us.
In Sikkim, to follow in the footsteps of the 1905 expedition we’ve already been turned back at the Nepalese border – our guide tells us it is because we have British passports. This is not government policy, but the frontier villages have long memories. They remember why Nepal was closed to foreigners for so many years, not least to guard against the imperial overtures of the needy, war-mongering British.
Crowley chanced his arm in 1905, claiming that he had, at the 59th minute of the 11th hour, received permission to cross the border. His party pressed higher into the mountains, then up the Yalung Glacier and onto the southwest face of Kangchenjunga. There, they faced fearful weather, deadly avalanches and bitter arguments. Over the weeks to come, mayhem would unfold.
My trip to Sikkim doubles as a chance to put the finishing touches on The White Ladder, my history of the first men and women to attempt the world’s highest mountains. Among a cast of larger-than-life characters, Crowley stands out. His opinions are odious, his actions often indefensible, but he is always ready to steal a scene, so much so that I could feel myself vying with him even in the writing of it.
Here, experiencing something of what awaited the members of the 1905 expedition, I can’t ignore the significance of the man at its head. Though he would fail to climb the mountain, and remain starkly unapologetic for his part in the deaths of five men, Crowley was an outrider for the egoists and eccentrics to come; those who, willing themselves to the apex of their ambition, stood on the shoulders of whoever stood ready.
Crowley was right, too. His route up the southwest face was followed by the first party to summit Kangchenjunga 50 years later. He recognised the risks Himalayan mountaineering necessarily implied and understood that a greater measure of courage was required to tackle peaks of this size. If he could, Crowley would have climbed Kangchenjunga alone. He was only a century ahead of his time.
We turn back two days later, as high on the Goecha La pass as tourists are permitted to go. We have been well looked after on our march into the mountains. What, for us, has been an exacting trek taking in mixed and unforgiving terrain, is, for our guide and porters, a weekly commute.
They are kind enough not to make fun of us – not to our faces at least. They probably should. Sightseeing at the limits of our fitness and endurance, we are babysat by those who call the mountains home. It is not the high-stakes proceeding it once was.
I had come to the mountains thinking I’d experience something of those first expeditions. Now, watching from a safe vantage as the summit of Kangchenjunga is tipped by the day’s first light, I am reminded that the past is a road once travelled; that time spans a distance you can never hope to close.
Daniel Light is the author of ‘The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering’, which is published on 5 September by Oneworld
Australian fisherman knocked out by whale’s tail whack while on boat
A fisherman off Queensland’s Gold Coast has suffered serious injuries after he was slapped across the face by the whip of a whale’s tail.
The 40-year-old man reportedly did not know where the whale was until it appeared in front of him and collided with his boat near the border between Queensland and New South Wales.
He was then knocked unconscious by a whack of the whale’s tail, but was remarkably not knocked off the boat and remained on board after being struck.
After the man’s friend on board and nearby jetski riders called the emergency services, rescue teams were able to locate the men and bring them back to shore.
The fisherman was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital and treated for serious injuries to his face and spine.
Queensland emergency services said he is now in stable condition but couldn’t remember the event.
The ambulance service described the incident as “extremely rare” and “extraordinary”.
“We’ve had boats come in contact with whales before, but not actually a person sitting in a boat,” first responder Scott Brown told local news.
“You have a little bit of disbelief that it happened at first, but respond nonetheless, and when we got there, that’s what we found had happened,” he told ABC News.
Humpback and southern right whales pass via Sydney as they migrate along Australia’s east coast to head north during the coldest months of June and July, and return south between September and November.
During this time people are also more likely to take their boats out into deeper water as there are favourable weather conditions.
Officials urged people to remain alert when they go fishing or boating during the whale season and to always wear life jackets when travelling on boats in the area.
“Just be cautious that there are a lot of whales at this time of year in that area, and today has shown us that anything can happen,” Mr Brown said.
Monkeys at ‘hellhole’ zoo risk infecting tourists with TB, critics say
Tourists visiting a Thai zoo who have fed and cuddled monkeys there are being warned they could be at risk of catching tuberculosis from them after the animals were filmed suffering from unusual, repeated coughing.
Dozens of monkeys at the Samui Monkey Centre were filmed with coughs, which investigators said could be a sign of an infectious disease such as tuberculosis (TB).
The witnesses, who say they have together visited more than 100 animal centres worldwide, reported that this was the first time they had seen widespread coughing in primates.
Past reviews on the Tripadvisor website suggest monkeys were coughing at least nine months before the investigation, “so the problem is thought to be persistent”, according to activists from the Moving Animals organisation, which documents animal cruelty globally.
The centre, on the tourist island hotspot of Koh Samui, encourages visitors to physically interact with its animals by feeding, touching and hugging them.
Thailand is among the 30 countries with the highest TB rates in humans, according to the World Health Organisation, and investigators from Moving Animals said the risk of humans and the monkeys infecting one another and spreading the disease more widely, was a threat to public health.
Scientists say coughing in monkeys could also be a sign of the common cold caught from humans, pneumonia, whooping cough or other respiratory diseases.
Millions of tourists each year from around the world visit Koh Samui, and the activists warned they could potentially take any diseases caught from monkeys back home with them.
Photographs and footage taken by the undercover investigators show dozens of monkeys kept in tiny cages, some held on short chains by their necks.
Rubbish including plastic bottles and crisp packets, and even bricks could be seen inside cages.
And the monkeys displayed “neurotic” behaviour, including frantically pacing back and forth – widely considered a sign of stress. “Several monkeys were noted to be eating twig branches in a possible sign of hunger and malnutrition,” a spokesperson for the investigators said.
A deer was kept alone in a small enclosure with a surface entirely of thick mud, leaving it with no appropriate space to rest, it was claimed, while a binturong, a protected species threatened with extinction, “appeared severely lethargic and possibly close to death”.
The activists branded the place a “hellhole” for animals and the conditions “cruel and dangerous”, as they urged authorities to send the animals to a sanctuary.
Crocodiles were seen in a barren cage with a dry floor with concrete blocks but no mud or water.
A licence at the centre’s entrance showed it had the right to “display animals for educational purposes”, not to act as a zoo, and required signature sections were left blank, the investigators said.
Thailand’s biggest wildlife sanctuary, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), has offered to house the animals.
Director Edwin Wiek said: “It was devastating reviewing the investigative footage.
“At just a few months old, it’s heartbreaking to know the baby monkey documented will spend the rest of his life in a barren cage, pacing in frantic circles, and as far from nature as you can imagine.
“That’s why we’re urgently seeking to rehome him and the dozens of other animals trapped in this hellhole.”
He said the sanctuary had received several disturbing reports about the centre, and “we are deeply concerned about the horrific animal cruelty documented, as well as the public health risk posed by the health conditions of the animals at the zoo”.
The Samui Monkey Centre did not respond to requests by The Independent to comment.