NEW DELHI
\nA report on the action of the government in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh against 2019\u2019s Anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters has said that state bodies are making concerted efforts not just to deny justice to those killed and injured in police actions but also exact revenge from those who had protested against the Act.
\nThe report about those who faced Uttar Pradesh government\u2019s action for protesting against the draconian citizenship law said, \u201cThere is an ongoing concerted effort by all the state bodies to not just deny justice to the survivors and victims but continue to extract \u2018revenge\u2019 and completely erase the battles of survival of Muslims and of civil society at large, from public memory.\u201d
\nThe report titled \u2018The Struggle for Equal Citizenship in Uttar Pradesh and its Cost\u2019 prepared by civil rights groups under the banner of Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) has been released by prominent human rights defenders. The report highlights the blatant abuse of power perpetrated by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in a predetermined and systematic way, the weaponisation of state machinery and strategic declaration of war against its own citizens.
\n\u201cAfter two years of this ghastly repression of the civil protest, there has been no attempt to either compensate the families of the dead, or to the survivors who suffered loss of limbs and property. There has not been any significant attempt to initiate impartial investigations into police atrocities against the protesters nor the ongoing cases dropped against the latter,\u201d noted the report.
\nSoon after the passing of the CAA by the Indian Parliament in December 2019, massive protests had broken out across India against the citizenship law that excludes Muslims from the list of religious groups to be considered for citizenship. Many districts of Uttar Pradesh were rocked by spontaneous protests in December 2019 itself. The state government responded by coming down heavily on the protesters.
\nAccording to the report, 23 Muslims were killed in the police action. Most of them were daily wagers and laborers. \u201cThe State has completely shirked away responsibility for these deaths. All these deaths were caused by bullet injuries. Post mortems were carried out under questionable circumstances. FIRs were not registered. Proper burials were not allowed. 8 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) were set up; however no arrests have been made till now,\u201d the report noted.
\nThe report said that apart from the deaths, around 350 FIRs were filed against around 5,000 identified individuals and over 100,000 unidentified persons. Besides, about 3,000 people were illegally arrested. Many of those individuals (predominantly Muslim) remained in jails under fabricated charges, even after more than two years since the anti-CAA protests began, it added.
\nThe protesters were also issued recovery notices. The report found that over 500 recovery notices have been arbitrarily issued, without due legal process, across ten districts for damages worth an estimate of Rs.3.55 crore. This has caused protracted harassment and trauma to those who have been targeted.
\nThe report asked the state government to \u201cimmediately release a comprehensive statement on the number of FIRs registered, people arrested, detained, accused, bailed, booked under stringent anti-terror legislations and other draconian laws\u201d and to immediately withdraw \u2018all the fabricated cases filed against more than one lakh unknown peaceful anti-CAA protesters\u2019.
\nThe report has also demanded compensation for those who were killed in the police action and a court-monitored inquiry into the state repression against the protesters. =DNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI A report on the action of the government in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh against 2019\u2019s Anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters has said that state bodies are making concerted efforts not just to deny justice to those killed and injured in police actions but also exact revenge from those who had protested against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n