United Nations (UN) human rights experts ask India to “immediately” release people arrested during the country’s highly controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests last year.
A statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday said, “These defenders, many of them students, appear to have been arrested simply because they exercised their right to denounce and protest against the CAA.”
The statement further stated that the arrests seem “clearly designed to send a chilling message to India’s vibrant civil society that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated.”
The UN experts statement said that the cases of arrests included “serious allegations of human rights violations” and “torture and ill-treatment” in custody.
While urging India to release anti-CAA protesters.buy kamagra online https://www.mydentalplace.com/wp-content/themes/twentytwenty/inc/new/kamagra.html no prescription The UN experts named 11 of those arrested and said one of the “most alarming cases” involved pregnant student Safoora Zargar, who was arrested for more than two months.
The UN experts called these arrests “discriminatory”.
The UN human rights experts stated that the Indian police failed to act against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. The UN human rights experts also accused the BJP supporters of “incitement to hatred and violence”.
As the top court of India is still hearing petitions, India responded to the UN statement by stating the CAA as its “internal matter” and that “no foreign party has any locus standing on issues pertaining to India’s sovereignty”.