Hindu supremacists harass Muslim students praying in campus
Amid a nationwide trend of cracking down on Muslims for practicing their faith, Hindu supremacists harassed Muslim students who were offering prayers in a university campus in Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – ruled Gujarat state.
In blatant disregard for the religious freedom of the Muslim students, members of extremist Hindu organizations – including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, both of which have mainly adult members – started chanting Hindu slogans while the Muslims were praying, in an attempt to intimidate them.
Instead of protecting the students, the university administration said in a statement that they would “counsel” the Muslim students and make plans to avoid similar situations in the future.
As religious expression for Muslims becomes increasingly dangerous, Hindu extremists are pushing for the saffronization (Hinduisation) of schools, colleges, and public spaces.
Soon after Christmas, Hindu supremacists vandalize church in Karnataka
Just two days after Christmas, a church in BJP-ruled Karnataka state was vandalized by unidentified Hindu supremacists.
The extremists damaged a statue of Jesus and stole an offering box placed near the altar.
The vandalism comes amid a surge in Hindu supremacists’ attacks against Christian institutions across the country.
A fact-finding report last year showed that Karnataka witnessed the third highest number of attacks on Christians and their places of worship.Several churches and Christian institutions have been targeted by extremist Hindu groups in Karnataka over false allegations of forced religious conversion.
Senior police official says activists arrested on false charges were not responsible for violence
A senior police official has stated that charges blaming sixteen human rights defenders for large-scale violence in the Bhima Koregaon case are completely bogus, further exposing how Hindu supremacist officials had framed the activists in order to arrest them.
The sixteen activists, lawyers, and academics were arrested under India’s draconian anti-terror law after police accused them of organizing a memorial event in 2017 that led to large-scale violence the next day.
However, a senior police officer has told a judicial commission that the event had no role in the violence.
The arrests of the Bhima Koregaon sixteen have been condemned internationally by, among others, European Union parliamentarians and Nobel laureates. Father Stan Swamy, a renowned Jesuit priest known for his decades-long activism, died in prison last year after being arrested on false charges in this case.
Forensic experts in the US have examined the laptops of two of the accused currently in prison and established that false evidence was planted on them using malware, most likely owned by the government.
