Indian government blocks independent news outlet The Kashmir Walla
In the latest crackdown on press freedoms, Indian authorities have blocked Indians from accessing the independent Kashmiri news outlet The Kashmir Walla and all its social media platforms.
The Kashmir Walla staff reported that they had also received an eviction notice and had begun the process of leaving their office building in Kashmir’s Srinagar.
The website’s founding editor, Fahad Shah, and contributor Sajad Gul were arrested amid an intensifying crackdown on press freedom in Kashmir. A number of Kashmiri journalists have been arrested, questioned and investigated in relation to their work since India’s Hindu supremacist government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019.
Muslim couple lynched after son elopes with Hindu girl
A Muslim couple in Uttar Pradesh state’s Sitapur was beaten to death by their Hindu neighbors with iron rods over their son’s relationship with a Hindu girl. The attack resulted in the deaths of Abbas and Kamrul Nisha after their son’s release from jail, where he was held following the girl’s father’s complaint.
Hindu militants are known for violently policing interfaith relationships and interactions between Muslim men and Hindu women, resulting in Muslim men being publicly attacked, arbitrarily arrested, and sometimes lynched.
Muslim man lynched to death for chopping wood in forest, forest officials join mob
In India’s latest mob lynching case, a 27-year-old Muslim man, Wasim, was beaten to death by a mob of Hindu extremists armed with weapons, sticks, and iron rods, allegedly for illegally chopping wood in a forest in Rajasthan state. His friends, Asif and Azharuddin, were also attacked and injured by the mob, which included forest officials. The mob also raised anti-Muslim slogans during the assault.
Muslim pizza delivery man stripped, brutally assaulted in Mumbai
A Muslim pizza delivery man was stripped, brutally beaten, and subjected to anti-Muslim slurs by a group of Hindu extremists in Maharashtra’s Mumbai. Before the assault, the mob asked the victim his name and proceeded to attack him after they confirmed he was Muslim.
Mob tries to throw boiling oil at vendor, assaults him after call for boycott of Muslim businesses
In Himachal Pradesh state, a Muslim street vendor, Alamgeer, was assaulted and threatened by a Hindu extremist mob following a call to boycott Muslim-owned businesses. The incident occurred after a Hindu extremist made a Facebook post ordering Hindus to avoid buying from Alamgeer’s store and support a Hindu vendor instead.
“They told me that I can’t put up my stall beside a Hindu stall and when I asked them the reason, [my attacker] took out the iron bangle he was wearing around his wrist and started attacking me with that,” Alamgeer reported.
He added that the mob also attempted to throw boiling oil on him, but it missed him by “an inch.”
Railway policeman who killed Muslims has a history of assaulting Muslims
Reports have revealed that a Hindu extremist railway policeman who shot and murdered his tribal coworker and three Muslim men, Chetan Singh Chaudhary, has a history of assaulting Muslims.
In 2016, Chaudhary had abused and physically assaulted a Muslim driver, Wajid Khan, and called him a “terrorist.” He had also pointed his gun at a Muslim woman in a burqa and forced her to chant nationalist slogans.
