By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
New Delhi: Hindu vigilante groups attacked Muslims and Dalits over suspicions that they had killed, stolen, or sold cows for beef. The violence took place amid an aggressive push by several BJP leaders and militant Hindu groups to protect cows and ban beef consumption, Human Rights Watch has said in ‘World Report 2017’.
The human rights advocacy group has said, “the government’s failure to rein in militant groups, combined with inflammatory remarks made by some BJP leaders, has contributed to the impression that leaders are indifferent to growing intolerance.”
The report also cites various other cases like that of March 2016, in which a Muslim cattle trader, Mohammed Mazlum Ansari, 35, and a 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Imteyaz Khan, were found hanging from a tree in Jharkhand; their hands tied behind their backs and their bodies bruised. In August, a man was killed in Karnataka state by members of a nationalist Hindu group while transporting cows.
In July, four men in Una, Gujarat were stripped, tied to a car, and publicly beaten with sticks and belts over suspicions of cow slaughter.
The report also talks about the limits on free speech and attacks on religious minorities, often led by vigilante groups that claim to be supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are an increasing concern in India.
“Authorities continue to use sedition and criminal defamation laws to prosecute citizens who criticise government officials or oppose state policies. In a blow to free speech, the government in 2016 argued before the Supreme Court in favour of retaining criminal penalties for defamation. The court upheld the law,” reads the report.
The report also censors Modi government for its continuous use of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which regulates foreign funding for civil society organisations, to cut off funds and stymie the activities of organizations that question or criticize the government or its policies.
“Even as authorities were using FCRA to tighten restrictions on NGOs, the government amended the law in March to retroactively legalise funding by foreign entities to political parties,” reads the report.
The report also mentioned the Kashmir unrest and said, “Impunity for police and security forces largely continued amid new allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings, including reports of sexual assault and other abuses by security forces in Kashmir and the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.”