A journalist has been killed in violent demonstrations against sex attacks in India as police failed to contain fresh violence.
A television reporter, 36, was reportedly shot dead when officers opened fire on a protest in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, over an attack on a film actress.
The star, known as Momoko, was dragged from stage in full public view last week by an armed militant who tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off and fled.
Momoko, also a popular model, has waived her right to anonymity to make a public appeal for her attacker's arrest.
Crowds in Manipur pelted police with stones on Saturday, prompting a curfew to be imposed for parts of the state.
This was relaxed on Sunday but soon a huge crowd assembled again to confront police who opened fire in retaliation, according to police spokesman A. Singh.
A women's rights activist Bala Bedi said: "We want a strong message to be sent that perpetrators of such crimes have no place in our society."
Water cannon were fired on the crowds
The death of the reporter, who worked for the Doordarshan network, came as separate angry protests over the brutal rape of a young woman were staged in New Delhi for a second day.
Police had tried to ban demonstrations in certain parts of the city after violence on Saturday.
On Sunday, all the routes leading to landmark government buildings were cordoned off and metro stations in the vicinity were closed to the public.
But several hundred protesters managed to breach the cordon around India Gate and braved tear gas and water cannon for the second day in a row.
The case of a 23-year-old student who was gang-raped by six drunk men last week has sparked a public outcry.
Promises by the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to consider demands for the six suspects to face the death penalty have failed to quell the anger.
Mr Shinde had also vowed on Saturday night that the government would take further steps to keep women safe.
A group of protesters met Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, on Sunday to demand a speedy trial of the suspects.
The 23-year-old woman, a physiotherapy student, was attacked by six drunk men when she was travelling on a bus with a male friend.
They took it in turns to rape her and attack her with an iron rod, causing serious internal injuries. She is still fighting for her life in hospital.
Campaigners want tougher sentences for sex attackers
Her case has caught the public mood amid dismay at a massive rise in the number of sexual attacks in India.
Government figures show a woman is now raped in the country every 20 minutes after a major rise in assaults.
National crime records show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year were against women.
Delhi has been dubbed the rape capital of India with government figures showing the number of rapes in the city rising 17% to 661 this year.
One of Delhi's most senior police officers has pleaded for an end to the unrest, saying the protests were being "hijacked by hooligans" and insisting that the case against the six suspects was being fast-tracked.
"We have met all the demands of the protesters," Special Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar said.
Sushma Swaraj, a leader of the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party, called for an all-party meeting to end the violence between protesters and the police.
"Please do not resort to violence. That is not the solution," she wrote on Twitter.
New Delhi: As India seethes with anger over the gang-rape of a young woman in a Delhi bus, the government has said it will ask for changes to criminal laws to introduce the death penalty for "rarest of the rare" sexual assault cases.
For now, he said, the government is adding more public buses at night for Delhi, and that all buses will be equipped with GPS tracking systems, allowing their movement to be monitored.
In Delhi, hundreds of protesters spent the day near Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate demanding that representatives of the government explain what is being done to make the capital safe for women. The police teargassed the crowd and used water cannons when some protestors tried to break through the police barricades. Mr Shinde asked protesters to stay calm. In the evening, Congress President Sonia Gandhi phoned the Prime Minister and Home Minister to demand that quick and appropriate action be taken, sources said.
Mr Shinde said that five policemen have been identified for dereliction of duty on the night when the student was raped and action will be taken against them.
He reiterated that the government will ask for a fast-track trial with daily hearings for this case.
Yesterday, Home Secretary RK Singh provoked outrage when he said that the police in Delhi "have no reason to be defensive" because they had identified and arrested the six men who assaulted the girl. (Read)
Agartala: A housewife was stripped naked, gang-raped and battered in full public glare in Tripura, police said Saturday.
"A 37-year-old woman was gang-raped at Bishalgarh in western Tripura Wednesday night. After the rape, the women was stripped naked, brutally beaten up and then tied to a tree," a police official told reporters in Agartala.
Based on the victim's complaint, police immediately swung into action and arrested seven people. However, three more accused, including the main one, are on the run.
Police said the accused dragged the house wife from her home and took turns to rape her before many people, including women. But no one dared to come forward to save the mother of a five-year-old.
The role of the husband is also being probed, the police official said.
Tripura Woman's Commission chairperson Purnima Roy strongly condemned the atrocious incident and asked the police to take stern action against the culprits.People organised a protest rally at Bishalgarh, 25 km from here, over the incident.
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'Amanat' gang-rape: After massive Delhi protests, Metro stations near India Gate closed today
Edited by Ashish Mukherjee | Updated: December 23, 2012 01:03 IST
New Delhi: At night, there were a few thousand people on a chilly winter night holding candles at India Gate.
Some carried placards that had slogans like "stop this shame"; others chanted slogans demanding better safety for women, the agenda declared by an outraged country after a young medical student, 'Amanat' (NOT her real name), was raped by six men in a Delhi bus last Sunday.
The fragile calm at night followed a day of fierce hostility and clashes between the protestors and the police. On Sunday, four metro stations near India Gate - Patel Chowk, Udyog Bhavan, Race Course and Central Secretariat - will remain closed from 6 am till further orders as a form of crowd-control.
The protestors gathered at India Gate and near Rashtrapati Bhawan by 10 am on Saturday. As the numbers grew, so did the resentment that nobody from the government chose to address them.
A little before 11 am, a group of unruly protesters began running towards Raisina Hill, where several ministries and the Prime Minister's Office are located. When they pushed aside the barricades there, the police used tear-gas and water cannons.In an attempt to check the tension, a small group of people was invited at noon into Rashtrapati Bhawan. They were met not by President Pranab Mukherjee but his aide.
Where is the government, asked irate demonstrators.
"It was a complete case of insensitivity," said former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee to NDTV, criticising the Prime Minister for failing to meet with the demonstrators.
At 3 pm and then again at about 6 pm, there were more clashes with the police. Both sides threw stones.
Senior opposition leader LK Advani phoned the Home Minister, urging him to instruct the police to show restraint.
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde met in the evening with a few demonstrators. At a press conference later, he said that he reassured them - and wants the country to know - that the government shares the outrage and anguish that has cascaded into the streets since last Sunday's inhumane attack on the student.
He said the government plans to ask for changes to criminal laws to introduce death penalty for "rarest of the rare" rape cases. He also said that the government will ask for a fast-track trial for the medical student's case.
The six men accused of her rape have been arrested. Five policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty while she was being assaulted - the bus she was on passed through several police checkpoints without being stopped though it had tinted windows, illegal in Delhi.
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