Mass rally held by Hindu extremists in support of Muslim man’s killers
A far-right Hindu outfit organized a mass rally in BJP-ruled Haryana’s Gurugram district six days after violence broke out in Nuh district and surrounding areas, claiming at least six lives. The rally was held in protest against the arrests of Hindu extremists, including those accused in the brutal murder of a 19-year-old imam in a mosque.
Muslim man arrested after WhatsApp group member criticized militant monk Yogi Adityanath
Police in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state arrested a Muslim man who is a WhatsApp group admin after a member made remarks against Hindu militant monk Yogi Adityanath. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath is a known Hindu supremacist who has openly encouraged acts of violence against Muslims, emboldening Hindu supremacists throughout the state.
Muslim man assaulted for accompanying Hindu friend in Madhya Pradesh
Members of far-right Hindu groups assaulted a Muslim man for accompanying a Hindu family friend in Gwalior, a city in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh state. 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.
Petrol bombs hurled at mosque in Indore
Video footage has captured petrol bombs being hurled at a mosque in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district. Last month, Hindu extremists threw a beer bottle at another mosque in Indore.
In Punjab, Hindu militants justify murder of Muslims, forcibly shut chicken momo shop
In Punjab’s Fazlika, a Hindu militant leader from the Bajrang Dal justified the murder of two Muslim men, Nasir and Junaid, over suspicion of trading cattle.
“Even if we have to cut someone, we won’t shy away,” he told the crowd. In a separate incident, Bajrang Dal members vandalized a shop selling chicken momos near a temple.
Hindu militants protest over Muslims offering prayers in a private flat
Hindu militants from the Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Manch organized a protest in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand’s Dehradun against local government officials over Muslims offering prayers in one of the flats allotted under a government housing scheme, claiming that it is being turned into a mosque.
Muslims often face discrimination, sometimes arrest for offering prayers in both private and public spaces.
Rights groups urge Reuters to terminate partnership with Islamophobic news agency ANI
A coalition of over 35 civil rights and interfaith organizations in the United States, UK, Australia, Canada, and India, sent a letter to Thomson-Reuters, urging the media agency to terminate its partnership and investment in the Asian News Agency (ANI) due to “its Islamophobic reporting and dissemination of pro-Hindu nationalist government propaganda.”
“ANI is an India-based news service that relays false information, quotes non-existent sources and non-existent institutions, actively collaborates with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to relay government messaging, and shows a pattern of anti-Muslim bias in its reporting,” read the press release by the coalition.
Editors Guild says new legislation can be misused to curb press freedom
The Editors Guild of India has expressed concerns over “draconian provisions” in the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023, stating that it could be misused to deny the right to bring out news publications to persons who are critical of governments”.
In its press release, the Editors Guild said that the new legislation “widens the powers of the state to have more intrusive and arbitrary checks” in how a publication functions, adding that some of the provisions were “vague” and the ambiguity could have “adverse implications on press freedom.”
It also criticized the continuation of the government’s power to enter the premises of news organizations, calling it “excessively intrusive.”
