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Rape and murder of medic triggers strike by doctors at government hospitals in India

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Indian doctors in government hospitals across several states halted elective services “indefinitely” on Monday to protest the rape and murder of a young medic.

The 31-year-old woman’s brutalized body was found bearing multiple injuries on Friday in a state-run hospital in West Bengal’s Kolkata, where she was a resident doctor.  

A subsequent autopsy confirmed sexual assault and homicide.

Police have detained a man who worked at the victim’s hospital helping people navigate busy queues, according to local media reports.

Demonstrations by doctors demanding justice and better workplace security that initially began in Kolkata have now spread to other parts of the country.

Doctors say they face additional threats of workplace violence from angry family members of patients, especially after delivering bad news.

INDIA-DOCTORS-STRIKE
Practicing doctors and medical staff display placards as they take part in a protest against the incident of rape and murder of a young medic in Kolkata, during a demonstration held at a government hospital in New Delhi on August 12, 2024. 

MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images


“There should be stringent security measures in hospitals and CCTV cameras should be installed,” said Sarvesh Pandey, from the Federation of Resident Doctors Association.

Pandey added that the protesting doctors’ demands included a specialised law protecting healthcare workers from violence on the job.

“There are incidents every day where doctors are assaulted,” said Pandey.

A survey by the Indian Medical Association found 75 percent of doctors in India had faced some form of violence.

Disturbing trend

An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in India in 2022, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.

That year, police arrested 11 people after the alleged brutal gang rape and torture of a young woman that included her being paraded through the streets of Dehli. Also in 2022, a police officer in India was arrested after being accused of raping a 13-year-old girl who went to his station to report she had been gang-raped.

In March, multiple Indian men were arrested after the gang rape of a Spanish tourist on a motorbike trip with her husband.

In 2021, a 34-year-old woman in Mumbai died after being raped and brutally tortured.

Large numbers of rapes go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around victims and a lack of faith in police investigations.

Convictions remain rare, with cases getting stuck for years in India’s clogged-up criminal justice system.

The notorious gang rape and murder of an Indian student made global headlines in 2012.

Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, was raped, assaulted and left for dead by five men and a teenager on a bus in New Delhi in December that year.

The horrific crime shone an international spotlight on India’s high levels of sexual violence and sparked weeks of protests, and eventually a change in the law to introduce the death penalty for rape.



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U.S. received Iran’s written assurance it was not actively trying to assassinate Trump

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The U.S. received written assurance from Iran before the presidential election that its leadership was not actively trying to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, CBS News confirmed, according to a source with direct knowledge of the correspondence. The message arrived after the White House in September affirmed that killing a former U.S. president or former U.S. official would be seen by the Biden administration as an act of war. 

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement in September.

Iran said in its message, which was conveyed by a third party, that it understood this premise. The Wall Street Journal first reported Iran’s message to the U.S. 

The Justice Department is currently prosecuting at least two individuals alleged to have been part of murder-for-hire plots to kill Trump while he was still a candidate. One operative working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told federal investigators that he was tasked in September with “surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump, according to court records unsealed last week. 

Prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to be residing in Iran, told investigators in a phone interview that unnamed IRGC officials pushed him to plan an attack against Trump to take place in October. If the plan could not come together in time, the Iranian officials directed Shakeri to delay the plot until after the election because the official “assessed that [Trump] would lose the election,” the charging documents said. 

In early August, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was arrested and charged with plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting U.S. government officials and politicians, according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday.

A U.S. official pointed out that Iran did not task its most effective proxy force, Hezbollah, with carrying out these plots. This official described Iran’s approach to date as “nice if it works. If it doesn’t, then it’s not a problem.” 

In response to inquiries suggesting that “Iran told U.S. it wouldn’t try to kill Trump”, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran said it would not comment on official messages between two countries. 

The mission said in a statement, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s assassination through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering fully to the recognized principles of international law.”

Trump has raised the ire of Iranians for a few reasons. He exited the international Iran nuclear agreement, which had lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. He also directed the 2020 airstrike that killed top Iranian commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Since then, some Trump administration officials and military officials received threats from the regime, among them, Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser during the strike. His predecessor in the job, John Bolton, who was part of the maximum pressure campaign that exerted sanctions pressure on Tehran, has also received threats. 

In 2022, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that Iran would threaten Americans — both directly and via proxy attacks — and was committed to developing networks inside the U.S. Two persistent threat assessments submitted to Congress by the State Department in January 2022 cited a “serious and credible threat” to the lives of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump administration Iran envoy Brian Hook. The non-public assessments showed that throughout 2021 and again in 2022, the State Department determined that round-the-clock, U.S.-taxpayer-funded diplomatic security details were needed to protect both men. That continues today.

Multiple former officials have spoken to CBS about duty-to-warn notices that they have recently received from the FBI and other agencies regarding the ongoing threat from Iran and Iranian-hired actors, implying the U.S. is taking the threat seriously and not taking the Iranian regime’s assurances at face value.

contributed to this report.



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National security implications of Trump’s Cabinet picks

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National security implications of Trump’s Cabinet picks – CBS News


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President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for key Cabinet roles have raised some eyebrows in Washington, D.C. While Trump is elevating some of his most passionate supporters for key roles in his administration, it’ll take much more than strong rhetoric to lead the nation’s most powerful federal agencies. CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins to discuss.

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Doctor explains how RFK Jr.’s plans could affect Americans’ health

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Doctor explains how RFK Jr.’s plans could affect Americans’ health – CBS News


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President-elect Donald Trump has followed through with his campaign promise to pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He is known for falsely claiming that vaccines cause autism and other health issues. CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder discusses the implications of the move.

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