• share
• share
• share

‘Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests’: US report flags rights abuses in India

NT Correspondent

New Delhi/Washington: An annual country report published by the United States government on Monday flagged “significant human rights abuses” in India, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests or detentions, and the surveillance of civil society activists and journalists.

The report, titled India 2023 Human Rights Report and released by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, was published by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States’ State Department.

It said that “the outbreak of ethnic conflict” between the Kuki and Meitei ethnic communities in Manipur had resulted in “significant human rights abuses”.

The northeastern state has been reeling from an ethnic conflict between the dominant Meitei and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities since early May.

The violence has left 219 persons dead and displaced 60,000 people from their homes since May 3, according to figures released by the state government in February.

“The [Indian] government took minimal credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses,” the report said.

It added that there were reports that the “government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings”.

The US report cited the killing of former Samajwadi MP Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed in April 2023 in UP’s Prayagraj. Both men were in custody in a murder case.

They were shot dead from close range.