Amnesty says Gujarat Police caning Muslims is ‘serious human rights violation’

Amnesty International India has condemned the Gujarat Police for caning Muslims and called it a serious human rights violation.

“The Gujarat police’s use of striking devices such as lathis [canes] to beat Muslim men who were tied to a pole by the police themselves is a serious human rights violation and shows their utter disrespect towards rule of law,” Amnesty India wrote on Twitter.

According to news media reports, nine Muslim men were restrained and publicly flogged by Gujarat police this week while the spectators cheered. The police accused the Muslim men of throwing stones at a Hindu festival celebration.

“We remind the @GujaratPolice that punishment is never a legitimate objective for a law enforcement action, even if using less lethal weapons. In this case, it blatantly ignored the guiding principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and accountability.”

Gujarat is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose avowed goal is to convert India into a Hindu nation by denying citizenship rights to India’s 250 million Muslims and four million Christians.

Madhya Pradesh officials illegally demolish Muslim-owned homes as vendetta

Authorities in Madhya Pradesh state illegally demolished three Muslim-owned homes that they claimed were involved in a fight in a village in Mandsaur district. The video of the demolition has gone viral on the internet.

Muslim families refuted the police’s allegations that Muslim youngsters disturbed the Hindu festival of Navaratri in Madhya Pradesh.

“The Mandsaur district administration and police on Tuesday demolished the houses of three persons accused of throwing stones on a Garba pandal and attacking organizers with a sharp-edged weapon over the weekend,” the Madhya Pradesh Police said.

“The houses were constructed illegally so we demolished them. We are checking the property papers of all the accused and action will be taken accordingly.”

He added that a complaint had been filed against 19 people, and that seven of them had been taken into custody following an investigation.

As with Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, too, is ruled by the BJP.

The demolition of homes in BJP-ruled states has become common, with governments bent on vendetta against Muslim people.

Hindu extremists harass Christian students on way to Catholic school event

Hindu extremists belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) harassed a group of children as they were on their way to a Catholic school event on Monday in Madhya Pradesh, which has seen an increase in persecution of Christian in recent years.

A vehicle carrying a group of t children to a program being organized at Saint Pius School in Khandwa district was stopped by VHP extremists.

The VHP is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the umbrella Hindu supremacist organization that is the ideological parent of the BJP.

The VHP said the program at the school was being conducted without permission, and called the police to the area.

The priest in charge of the event said only Catholic children had been invited, and efforts to seek permission from the authorities were unsuccessful.

Police said they are investigating the incident.

Madhya Pradesh is over 90 percent Hindu, and Christians just make up 0.3 percent of the population, compared to 2.3 percent in the nation as a whole.

The state passed a Religious Freedom Bill last year, which despite its name is an “anti-conversion” law aimed at keeping Hindus from joining other religions.

Under the provisions of the new law, a “forced” religious conversion could lead to a one-to-five-year jail term and a minimum fine of around $350. If the person converted was a minor, the jail term and fine could be doubled.