NEW DELHI —
India must immediately end a “vicious” crackdown on Muslims who took to the
streets to protest the ruling party official’s remarks about the Prophet
Mohammed, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
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Two demonstrators
were killed, and hundreds of others arrested last week in nationwide protests
over the comments, which embroiled India in a diplomatic furor and caused
widespread outrage in the
Islamic world.
Footage of
bulldozers demolishing homes of those arrested or identified as protesters has
since been spread on social media. Authorities were “selectively and viciously
cracking down on
Muslims who dare to speak up... against the discrimination
faced by them,” Amnesty’s Aakar Patel said in a statement.
“Cracking down on
protesters with excessive use of force, arbitrary detention and punitive house
demolitions... is in complete violation of India’s commitments under
international human rights law.”
More than 300
people have been arrested in the northern
Uttar Pradesh state for joining last
week’s rallies. The state’s chief minister, firebrand monk Yogi Adityanath, is
one of India’s most prominent Hindu nationalist politicians, known for sectarian
rhetoric against India’s 200-million strong Muslim minority.
Adityanath has
repeatedly called on authorities to demolish the homes of people accused of
crimes, an exhortation critics say violates constitutional and human rights law
prohibitions on collective punishment.
Amnesty has
demanded an “immediate and unconditional release” of detained protesters, and
Patel said the arrests and demolitions were “part of an alarming escalation of
the states’ measures targeting Muslims”.
Since coming to
power nationally in 2014, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of
championing discriminatory policies towards Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government proposed a controversial law that granted faster
citizenship to refugees in India, but not if they are Muslim, while state BJP
governments have passed laws making inter-religious marriages harder.
Cities around
India saw sizable demonstrations on Friday, with some crowds burning effigies
of Nupur Sharma — the BJP spokeswoman whose comments during a TV debate show
set off the furor. Sharma has been suspended from the party, which issued a
statement saying it respected all religions, while the governments of nearly 20
Muslim-majority countries called in their Indian envoys to register their disapproval.
Friday also saw huge
protests in neighboring countries, with police estimating more than 100,000
people mobilized across
Bangladesh after midday prayers. Another 5,000 people
took to the streets in the Pakistani city of Lahore, demanding that their
government take stronger action against India over the comments.
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