The IAMC has further condemned the violence and police brutality on Muslim protestors across India, especially in Uttar Pradesh where the police in multiple cities charged at Muslims with batons, pelted stones, and thrashed several individuals before arresting them.
Press Release
WASHINGTON – The Indian American Muslim Council, an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, unequivocally condemned the murder of two Muslim teenagers, Mudasir, 15, and Sahil, 19, from Ranchi, Jharkhand. The teenagers were killed by the police during a protest against former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The IAMC has further condemned the violence and police brutality on Muslim protestors across India, especially in Uttar Pradesh where the police in multiple cities charged Muslims with batons, pelted stones, and thrashed several individuals before arresting them.
In Allahabad, now officially known as Prayagraj, the Uttar Pradesh police illegally arrested family members of prominent Indian Muslim activist Afreen Fatima including her father Javed Mohammed, mother Parveen Fatima, and younger sister Sumaiya Fatima.
“We are extremely concerned for the safety of my family, whose whereabouts we are unaware of, and for the safety of our own selves and our houses as all of us, including women and children, are being forcefully evicted from our house in the middle of the night without providing any reasons,” Afreen said in a statement.
Similarly, in Hyderabad, police resorted to baton-charge to disperse protesters while the Srinagar district in Kashmir was subjected to an unwarranted internet blackout to preempt the manifestation of any form of dissent.
“There is a clear double standard in the way the Indian law enforcement treats protesters and Hindu supremacist rioters,” said Husnaa Vhora, spokesperson for IAMC. “While Muslims protesting against hate speech are murdered by police gunfire, weapon-wielding Hindu supremacists are allowed to wreak havoc on Muslim neighborhoods and walk away with no consequences.”
“It is now the norm to find that police are complicit in furthering anti-Muslim violence across India. This is unacceptable and must be condemned at the highest levels of government,” said Syed Afzal Ali, President of IAMC.
Just last week, Rashad Hussain, the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom while releasing the US State Department’s 2021 International Religious Freedom Report called out the Indian government officials, who he said are “ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship.”
