NEW DELHI: Hundreds of students protested in Delhi on Wednesday, demanding better safety for women, after a teenager said she had been gang-raped by three men posing as police officers at a park in the Indian capital this week.

Police shot and caught one suspect on Tuesday and were questioning two more, who were brothers, senior police officer Vijay Kumar told reporters after the 17-year-old reported the assault.

Protesters, most of them female and several wearing face masks, held placards and shouted slogans while marching on the streets near the crime scene on Wednesday evening, demanding safety.

“Our body is our own,” some placards said, while others demanded freedom to go out at night without fear.

The alleged assault occurred barely 2km (1.2 miles) from Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College, one of the country’s top colleges for women, which suspended classes on Tuesday after the suspect was shot metres away from its campus.

“Some students were panicking after the shooting so we decided to suspend classes around noon,” a college official said, who did not want to be named. LSR Principal Kanika K Ahuja said classes were cancelled after college authorities came to know about the incident, adding that the “safety, security, and well-being” of students was “paramount” to the institution, local media reported. The father of the two brothers questioned over the incident was cited in a local media report as saying they had been framed.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2026