Indian journalists detained under draconian anti-terror law
In the Indian government’s latest assault on freedom of press, the Delhi Police Special Cell raided the office of Indian news portal NewsClick. Police also searched the homes of over a dozen journalists including junior employees and contributors, seizing laptops and phones, and detaining around ten journalists.
NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, and journalist Amit Chakravarty were arrested under India’s draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The raids occurred after a case was lodged against NewsClick under the UAPA, following a New York Times report that alleged that the media company had received funding from an American millionaire involved in the spread of “Chinese propaganda.”
However, four prominent Indian media bodies – the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists, and Press Association – have slammed these allegations as “unwarranted and condemnable,” and comparing the hypocritical scrutiny into NewsClick’s funds to a “witch-hunt.”
Case registered against 57 Muslims in Uttar Pradesh for holding funeral prayer on roadside
Police in Uttar Pradesh state have registered a case against 57 Muslims for praying on a roadside. The congregational prayer was part of a funeral and was held on the roadside near a local graveyard. A case was registered after Hindu supremacists in the area objected to the funeral prayer and took videos demanding police action.
Muslim families served backdated demolition notices after Hindu extremist violence
After a violent Hindu supremacist procession led to arsoning, looting, and vandalizing Muslim-owned shops and businesses in Madhya Pradesh, Muslims have reported being served backdated demolition notices for their properties by local authorities.
Throughout India, Hindu supremacist state and city governments have ordered these punitive demolitions against Muslims as a form of collective punishment following Hindu extremist violence.
Hindu extremist leader threatens to repeat gruesome mob lynchings 200 times
At a gathering of Hindu extremist cow vigilantes, including young people, a leader of a prominent cow vigilante group threatened to repeat the gruesome double murder of Junaid and Nasir, two Muslim men who were brutally lynched and burned in their own car by violent cow vigilantes after being accused of cow smuggling.
“To stop cow slaughter, if we have to repeat Nasir-Junaid [murder] two hundred times, still we won’t step back,” said Haryana Gau Raksha Dal chief Acharya Yogendra Maharaj.
