Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-07-2019
Advocacy group United Against Hate (UAH) says India’s ruling government is behind the lynching of Muslims and Dalit’s in the country and has launched a toll-free helpline (1800-3133-60000) for the victims aimed at documenting such cases and providing them with legal aid.
Dozens of Muslims and Dalit’s have been attacked, even publicly lynched, by far-right mobs for allegedly possessing beef or slaughtering cows.
The group of activists and civil society members from across India, say the initiative is required as India’s federal and state governments failed to prevent such incidents.
Speaking to Radio Islam, UAH’s Nadeem Khan says its activists will work in nearly 100 Indian cities to provide help to the victims of hate crimes, the majority of them Muslims, who comprise 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion population.
Khan says the state and central governments has only made statements on such incidents and the claims of the government, the assaults have not stopped.
“According to our documentation, in these cases 80% are political killing and 20% you can say that is the mob, it’s not a general mob. It’s this mob getting the guidelines from the government machinery and this government is getting the political benefit at the time of elections, a bit of polarization and all after the mob lynching incidents.
While hate crimes against India’s minorities spiked after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, experts say his re-election in May has emboldened the Hindu right-wing agenda.
– Additional reporting by Al Jazeera
Listen to the interview with Nadeem Khan
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