Death of Delhi gang rape victim horrifies India "It's a much bigger problem with our society," said one protester, Aditi Gupta, a 25 year old commercial pilot. "We have not gone beyond the traditions of thousands of years in which women were inferior to men and we have to change that," she said. Nirbaya's ordeal began when she and her male companion boarded a private bus on Sunday, December 16th, on their way home from a cinema in Saket, South Delhi, and were attacked by six men who were the only other passengers on board. The men had initially abused her for being out at night with a man who wasn't her husband. They then took turns to rape her and beat her with an iron rod, in an assault lasting more than an hour as the bus cruised the streets, the atrocities inside hidden from onlookers by tinted windows and closed curtains. After they both fell unconscious they were thrown out of the bus on a flyover and left for dead. The driver of the bus is among those who have been arrested in connection with the crime. When they arrived at Delhi's Safdarjung government hospital, doctors found she had suffered severe internal injuries that may have been caused by the iron rod. In between operations to remove more than 90 per cent of her intestines, she managed to give two long interviews to police and a magistrate and spoke to her family of her determination that her rapists be brought to justice. She later suffered a heart attack and breathing difficulties before doctors decided to send her to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where her parents stayed at her bedside. India's Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh said he was "deeply saddened" at her death but called for protestors to channel their anger into a "dispassionate debate" over how India can make women safer rather than pursue "sectional interests and agenda." We have already seen the emotions and energies this incident has generated. These are perfectly understandable reactions from a young India and an India that genuinely desires change. It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channelize these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action," he said. Yesterday, armed police were bussed into the city centre to protect Delhi Gate, the public parkland in front of the government's ministerial offices and the President's house, along with the homes of prominent political leaders, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Delhi's Congress chief minister Sheila Dixit arrived at the Jantar Mantar protest ground to show her support for demonstrators but was chased away by an aggressive mob. A legal counsellor who had comforted the parents while their daughter was in Safdarjung hospital in Delhi told the First Post news site that they were a tight-knit family. "They had invested everything in their daughter," she said. She would have become a physiotherapist and gone on to support her family. Her father had remained hopeful that their daughter would recovered and had asked politicians visiting to show support if they could help find her a job when she recovered. Her mother however was "shattered." "In a situation like this, you lose faith in God, in everything." the counsellor added. The mother was oblivious to who was coming or going. Official statistics reveal that Delhi is India's 'rape capital' with 414 rapes in 2010 and more than 600 this year alone. Onely one in three reported cases end in conviction but campaigners believe victims are so afraid of the police - many officers believe victims are to blame - that only one in 50 rapes are registered. Veteran Communist MP Brinda Karat said it was a shame that it took "a death of such a brave healthy woman to wake India and wake up this government." Neeti Bhargava, a 33 year old banker, said although there had been many rapes and gang-rapes in recent years, she had decided to protest because Nirbaya's ordeal was one of the "most heinous things Delhi has seen. It seems the government is not taking any action to appease the citizens right now," she said. Since the attack and the protests which followed it, in which a policeman died and a journalist was killed, the government has announced a review of rape laws and measures to reduce sexual assaults, while the six men alleged to have raped and killed 'Nirbaya' will now face murder trials in a fast-track court in the next few weeks. If convicted they will face execution.