India ranks 8th among countries at highest risk of mass killing: US study
India ranks eighth among countries that are at the highest risk of mass killing in 2022 and 2023, according to a US-based research organization- the Early Warning Project.
The report pointed out the ruling Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s discriminatory laws against religious minorities and said that India has a one in 14 chance of new mass killings in 2022-2023.
A mass killing, as per the report, is 1,000 or more civilians deliberately killed by armed forces (whether government or non-state), over a period of a year or less, because of their membership in a particular group.
India was ranked in the second position among the top 15 highest-risk countries for the last five years.
“Hindu nationalist leaders have continued to propagate hate speech, including religious leaders’ calls for mass killings of Muslims in December 2021. Several states saw large-scale and violent incidents targeting Muslims in recent months, which involved Hindu nationalist processions engaging in derogatory anti-Muslim chants and the desecration of mosques,” the report said.
Over the last few years, many Hindu supremacist leaders, associated with the ruling BJP have propagated hate speech with impunity and called for mass killings of Muslims.
Activists Khalid Saifi, Umar Khalid discharged by court in fabricated Delhi pogrom case
Prisoners of Conscience and human rights activists Umar Khalid and Khalid Saifi were discharged in one of the key cases where they were arrested on trumped up charges of carrying out the violence during Delhi pogrom in 2020.
However, they continue to remain in jail in another utterly false case accusing them of conspiring to carry out the violence.
It has been repeatedly established through independent investigations, including by Amnesty International, that violence was carried out by Hindu extremists with the full support and participation of uniformed personnel of Delhi Police.
The police had alleged that a mob threw stones, attacked a parking lot, and set vehicles on fire. Although Khalid and Saifi were not part of the mob, they were falsely accused of a criminal conspiracy in the case.
Granting bail to Khalid in the case in April last year, the court had said that the activist cannot be allowed to remain in prison on the basis of sketchy material against him.
Muslim vegetable vendor loses both legs in mishap during police raids
In Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district, a 17-year-old Muslim vegetable vendor lost both his legs after he was run over by a train while he was trying to pick up his belongings that were thrown by the police on the track.
The police were clearing spaces occupied by roadside vendors.
Arsalan was selling vegetables on the roadside when police officials beat him up and later threw his weighing scales on the railway track.
As soon as he went to pick up his scales on the track, he was hit by a speeding train and both his legs were amputated.
