Junior doctors in India are refusing to return to work after a national doctors' strike ended

Junior doctors at many hospitals in India have not returned to work despite the end of a 24-hour strike by the country's largest doctors' association, demanding immediate justice for the brutal rape and murder of a female trainee doctor.

The 24-hour strike called by the Indian Medical Association ended at 6am on Sunday, Reuters reported, with the association saying most doctors had returned to work that day. However, the All India Resident Doctors and Junior Doctors Joint Action Forum said Saturday it would continue the nationwide strike and demanded a full investigation and arrest of the female trainee within 72 hours.

Tripathi, deputy medical director at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said junior doctors and interns have not returned to work. "There were demonstrations today. Other people are under a lot of pressure with fewer people."

In the week since the killing of the 31-year-old thoracic medicine graduate student in the eastern city of Kolkata in the early hours of August 9, doctors across India have held protests and candlelight marches and refused to see non-emergency patients.

The Indian Medical Association called a strike Saturday, interrupting elective surgery and outpatient consultations while emergency departments in hospitals that deal with emergencies continued to operate.

The association called on the authorities to strengthen security in hospitals and create safe rest Spaces to protect medical staff from violence. Asokan said: "Women make up the majority of our profession in this country. We have repeatedly asked for their safety."

Paliwal, the association's head in Uttar Pradesh, said most doctors had resumed their daily work on Sunday, but if the government does not take any strict measures to protect doctors, the association will decide on the next course of action, "this time we may also stop emergency services."

For more than a week, the R.G.AR Hospital, where the killings took place, has been rocked by riots and rallies. Police banned gatherings of five or more people around the hospital for a week from Sunday and deployed riot police in what they said was an effort to prevent a breach of the peace and public tranquility.