Amnesty halts India operations, citing government’s witch hunt

Human rights group Amnesty International to stop its operations in India. Amnesty International claimed that it was halting its work because the government has frozen its bank accounts in the latest action against it for speaking out about human rights violations.

“The organisation has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work. This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organisations by the Government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations”, Amnesty International India said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Amnesty International India said its bank accounts were frozen on September 10. Amnesty said it had highlighted rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and riots in Delhi in recent days and the government had sought to punish it for that.

“The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental. The constant harassment by government agencies including the Enforcement Directorate is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the government, more recently for accountability of the Delhi police and the government of India regarding the grave human rights violations in Delhi riots and Jammu and Kashmir. For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent,” said Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India.

In 2019, Amnesty testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on human rights in South Asia, where it highlighted its findings about the grave situation of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes arbitrary detentions and the use of excessive force and torture in Kashmir.

The group has faced scrutiny by different government agencies in the country over the past few years.

In August 2016, a case of sedition was filed against Amnesty India over allegations that anti-India slogans were raised at one of its events. Three years later, a court ordered the charges to be dropped.

In October 2018, the group’s offices in the southern city of Bangalore were raided by the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes. Its accounts were frozen then too, but Amnesty says it was able to access them after seeking a court’s intervention.
In early 2019, the group says dozens of its small donors were sent letters by the country’s income tax department. And later in the same year, Amnesty’s offices were raided again, this time by the Central Bureau of Investigation, based on a case registered by India’s home affairs ministry.

The group said it will continue to fight its legal cases in India.