Surat: Nearly 1,000 school children and their parents undertook a silent march to the Surat police commissioner's office on Monday afternoon to protest the gang rape of a girl in the city on Friday.

The participants, bearing a black band over their mouths, started from various parts of the city and culminated their march at the police commissioner's office. They later submitted a memorandum to Police Commissioner Shivanand Jha demanding security for all citizens in the city.

The rally was taken out in the hours when the police were busy rounding up the Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Savayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists who had called for a bandh in the city on Monday to protest the gang-rape.

Following the rape, the police stepped up patrolling across the city even during the day.

Police also asked private coaching institutes and tutors not to hold classes before 7 a.m. The victim, a 17-year-old girl was on her way to a tution class at 5.30 a.m. last week, when three youths - two of whom were sons of policemen posted at Surat - kidnapped her in a car and raped her.

"The parents of the students are also being instructed through schools not to be careless about the safety of their wards when they are on their way to tuition classes or schools," a senior police officer in the crime branch here said. IANS