US Based Indian Rights Group Condemns Police Killings
July 29, 2007
Indian Muslim Council – USA (http://www.imc-usa.org), an advocacy group dedicated towards safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, condemns the indiscriminate police firings on the demonstrators demanding land distribution to the poor in Mudugonda in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. The firing resulted in the deaths of 8 protesters and injured dozens of people. Live television footage also captured police cornering and beating up unarmed women.
The use of lethal force without warning to disperse the demonstrators is deplorable. This pattern of unwarranted killings of innocent people is shocking and must be stopped immediately. In the recent past, similar incidents of police brutality included the killings of the fleeing worshipers after the bomb blast in the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, AP.
Indian Muslim Council-USA in a statement demanded the establishment of a non-partisan oversight body under the purview of the National Human Rights commission to monitor the increasing human and civil rights abuses at the hands of the police in Andhra Pradesh. It also demanded an independent inquiry into the incident.
“Indian police must learn how to bring law and order without killing” said Rasheed Ahmed, President of IMC-USA. He further added, “In absence of accountable and transparent law and order or good governance, it is conceivable that the worsening caste, class and communal relations could undermine the nation’s progress and deprive us of an opportunity to uplift hundreds of millions of Indian citizens from the gallows of poverty.”
CONTACT:
Syed Ali Rahman
phone: 1-800-839-7270
email: info@imc-usa.org
RELATED NEWS:
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http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/jul/28/andhra_cm_orders_judicial…
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2241150.cms
Andhra cops fire on land agitators, 8 killed
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/andhra-cops-fire-on-land-agitators-8-killed/…
