Delhi turns fortress as nation mourns death of gang-rape victim

A storm of protests swept across the country as the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim breathed her last at a Singapore hospital after struggling for nearly a fortnight.

The national capital turned into a fortress as the police braced to stem the tide of swelling protests as people already fed up with corruption at all levels of government lost their patience as law and order too broke down, leaving citizens at the mercy of anti-socials.

From schoolboys to aged men and women, protesters staged peaceful protests at New Delhi's central area of Jantar Mantar even as police ringed both sides of a half-kilometer stretch of the area demarcated for the protests.

About 1,000 people had gathered by afternoon as police allowed people to walk in after frisking. And as the word spread around, the government converted the heart of Delhi, the India Gate area, into a fortress, making it inaccessible to those silent protesters.

In fact, almost 10 stations on the Delhi Metro were closed to stop protestors reaching their destinations, with even policemen resorting to hitch hiking with passengers to reach their destinations.

The young paramedical student, severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi two weeks ago, had been flown to Singapore in a critical condition by the government on Thursday for specialist treatment.