Attacks on religious minorities in India are being let off, says report

New Delhi, Feb 20: In what could make the ruling BJP a tad uncomfortable, a report released on Tuesday, February 19, by Human Rights Watch has said that the Indian authorities have delayed probing a series of vigilante-style murders of religious minorities and also justifying at times such attacks and file charges against the victims' families.

Attacks by cow protection group members have increased since 2014

The report spreading over 104 pages has said attacks by the so-called protector of cows have multiplied sharply since the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. The rights advocacy body said 44 people have been killed between May 2015 and December 2018 and most of the victims were Muslims who were accused of keeping beef or carrying cows for slaughter.

Also a report from FactChecker.in, based in India, said that as many as 90 per cent of religion-based hate crimes in the last decade took place under Modi's prime ministership. The report also said that in almost all these attacks, the families faced obstacles when they tried to get justice. It said the police initially disrupted probe, ignored procedures and even played complicit roles in the killings.

The report, called "Violent Cow Protection India India: Vigilante Group Attack Minorities", released some months ahead of the upcoming general elections, also looks at how the government responded to 11 recent attacks that killed 14 people.

"Indian police investigations into mob attacks are almost as likely to accuse the minority victims of a crime as they are to pursue vigilantes with government connections," Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying by the New York Times.