IPT 2.1 | january 2023 | Section 3
There have been several incidents of arbitrary arrests and deprivation of liberty, targeting journalists, social workers as well as ordinary citizens from among Muslim and Christian groups, going about their lives. Some of the ones reported included:
By state actors
On December 9th, Rehan Shah (22), his father Yunis Shah, and two brothers Ravi and Rahis, were picked up by the police in Badaun (Uttar Pradesh) and are currently in police custody. On 2nd May 2022, Rehan was tortured in police custody, and a case was registered against five police personnel reportedly involved in the incident, a month later. Family members testify that police personnel have been continuously forcing the family to withdraw their complaint. In December, the police registered an FIR against Rehan and his father and brothers for rioting, unlawful assembly, destruction of public property, claiming that they pelted stones at the police. The current whereabouts of the detained men are unknown to the family.
On September 14th, Kalim, a Muslim inmate of a prison in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, was attacked by a jailer who cut his beard in front of other inmates and taunted Kalim, asking if he came from Pakistan. In a complaint filed with the district collector on Friday, Kalim said the jailer, Narayan Singh Rana, misbehaved with him when he came for an inspection of the jail on 14 September.
On October 4th, a video emerged of the public flogging of Muslim men by police officers in Kheda, Gujarat. According to a petition filed by the victims in Gujarat High Court, they along with others were publicly flogged in a market area by 13 police personnel for allegedly throwing stones at Garba Hindu festival event. The flogging happened before 43 Muslim men were arrested in the evening of October 4 for allegedly pelting stones at another garba procession in the village the previous night. The men have since been granted bail, on the condition that they do not return to the village till 31 March 2023. The families of these men in the village are facing economic hardships as the men were the primary breadwinners for many of these families and are now unable to return to the village to work. The local Court has directed the police to conduct an inquiry into the complaint by the victims.
Torture has been a common tool of policing in India. In Jammu & Kashmir, it has also involved use of extraordinary tools and methods, banned the world over, including pellet firing shotguns as means to control protesters. In November, a paper published in The Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, strongly advised against the use of pellet guns against civilians. The paper was co-authored by surgeons who operated upon those injured by security forces using pellet guns in Srinagar, Kashmir during the 2016 protests. 80 % of those being injured in the eye due to the pellets continue with visual impairment, with vision limited to counting fingers, chronicling the long-term impacts of state repression.
Of Muslims by non-state actors
The false conspiracy of ‘love jihad’ is being used by Hindu right wing groups to attack Muslim men. Men are targeted for allegedly luring Hindu women to eventually convert them to Islam under romantic pretences. Some incidents of attacks of this nature in the period under review, included below are:
In December, a Muslim man Ishaaq (45) was beaten by a group of Bajrang Dal members for helping a Hindu woman in a bus in the Dakshin Kannada district of Karnataka. The woman asked him to hold her bag as she was preparing to dismount the bus, and took the bag from him once the bus stopped. However, the bus conductor called Bajrang Dal, who accused the victim of ‘love jihad’ and seriously assaulted him. A police complaint has been registered against three men who were taken into custody – Manohar, Chethan, Kishor
On November 25th Seyad Raseem Ummar (20) was assaulted by Bajrang Dal workers for travelling with a Hindu girl in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
On November 23rd, three Muslim college students were beaten by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal members, in Surat, Gujarat, over allegations of love jihad.
On November 20th, a Muslim man was beaten by Bajrang Dal members in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, for having coffee with a Hindu woman. He was accused of ‘love jihad’ and a video shows the attackers hand him over to the police.
On September 28th, four Muslim men were assaulted by Bajrang Dal members outside a Garba festival event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Such attacks were part of ‘anti love-jihad’ conspiracy by right wing groups during Hindu festivals to target Muslim men. The connivance of state and non-state actors is demonstrated with 14 Muslim men arrested in 7 days after Bajrang Dal handed them over for allegedly entering Garba venues. All 14 men have been charged under section 151 (knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace) of the Indian Penal Code.
On September 15th, Wajid Ali was attacked when travelling with his family, in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district. The family alleges that he was tied to a bike and dragged amidst anti-Muslim religious sloganeering, and accused the police of not taking appropriate action against the perpetrators.
On December 29th, a ten-year-old Muslim boy was stopped on his way to attend school and beaten by a man named Ajay Bhil for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ (Glory to Lord Ram).
On September 14th, Maulana Mohammed Sadiq Nadwi, a leader of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, was attacked by Hindu vigilantes, as he was on his way home. According to a statement by the Jamiat, three people riding on a bike shouted at the victim and a co-traveller and then crashed into the motorcycle they were on, which led to the victim falling and getting injured.
Of Christians by non-state actors
Since December 16th, groups of Christians from at least 14 villages of Narayanpur district in Chhatisgarh’s Bastar region have taken refuge in stadiums and churches after 60 families claimed they had been targeted and evicted from their homes by Hindu vigilante groups for converting to Christianity. A fact-finding study by civil society groups found that between 9th and 18th December, about 1000 Christians had been displaced in the state of Chhattisgarh due to attacks and attempts to forcibly convert some to Hinduism.
On September 15th, Pastor Sukhdev Mark, a Christian pastor who was also a taxi driver was attacked by a passenger and three accomplices after the driver mentioned his affiliation.
In October, members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad stopped a school vehicle which was taking children to a school event at their Catholic school in Khandwa, Maharashtra, alleging that the children were being taken for religious conversion.
On November 20th, 9 Christians were attacked by Hindu vigilantes during Sunday church service in Chhatisgarh. The assailants surrounded the Church during worship and attacked the pastor, his brother, and other churchgoers for abandoning the Hindu faith.
On October 21st, 15 Christians were attacked by Hindu vigilantes during a private prayer meeting. An off-duty police officer was part of the attack. The police refused to lodge their complaint when the victims went to the station.