A Young Heart Stops, A Nation Mourns

A female student gang-raped on a bus in India's capital Delhi has died at a Singapore hospital.The 23-year-old had arrived in Singapore on Thursday after undergoing three operations in a Delhi hospital The attack earlier this month triggered violent public protests in India that left one police officer dead.Six men have been arrested and two police officers have been suspended following the 16 December attack .A team of eight specialists had tried to keep the patient stable, but her condition continued to deteriorate over the two days she was at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, he added.Officials from the High Commission of India had also been present when the patient passed away. The Indian home minister said the government had decided to send the victim overseas on the recommendation of her doctors.
The victim and her friend had beento see a film when they boarded thebus in the Munirka area of Delhi, intending to travel to Dwarka in the south-west of the city.
Police said she was raped for nearlyan hour, and both she and her companion were beaten with iron bars and thrown out of the moving bus and into the street.The government has tried to halt rising public anger by announcing a seriesof measures intended to make Delhi safer for women.
These include more police night patrols, checks on bus drivers and their assistants, and the banning of buses with tinted windows or curtains.The government has also said that it will post the photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists on official websites to shame them.
It has set up two committees - one looking into speeding up trials of cases involving sexual assaults on women, and the other to examine the lapses that might have led to the incident in Delhi.