Mob attacks by extremist Hindu groups against minorities continued in India throughout 2018: US report

The report released by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quotes Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data.

(Web Desk) – Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims continued throughout the year (2018) amid rumors that victims had traded or killed cows for beef, says a report issued by United States State Department.

The report titled - India 2018 International Religious Freedom Report – said the government sometimes failed to act on mob attacks on religious minorities, marginalised communities, and critics of the government.

"Some senior officials of the Hindu-majority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made inflammatory speeches against minority communities," reads the report.

The report contends that at least 24 States in the country apply partial to full restrictions on bovine slaughter.

"The ban mostly affects Muslims and members of other Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In the majority of the 24 States where bovine slaughter is banned, punishments include imprisonment for six months to two years and a fine of 1,000 to 10,000 rupees."

The reports claimed that there is "religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, discrimination, vandalism, and actions restricting the right of individuals to practice their religion, beliefs and proselytize."

The report released by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has quoted Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data, saying communal incidents in India has increased by 9 per cent from 2015 to 2017, with 822 incidents resulting in 111 deaths and 2,384 injuries in 2017.

"Authorities often failed to prosecute perpetrators of ‘cow vigilante’ attacks, which included killings, mob violence, and intimidation," adds the report.

The report further recalled the example of an eight-year-old Muslim girl from Jammu and Kashmir who was kidnapped, raped, and killed, the report said: "Attacks on religious minorities included allegations of involvement by law enforcement personnel."

"On January 10, Jammu and Kashmir police arrested eight men, including four police personnel, in connection with the kidnapping, gang rape, and killing of an 8-year-old girl. The men allegedly kidnapped the victim, took her to a nearby temple, and raped and killed her in an effort to drive her nomadic Muslim community out of the area," says the report.

“Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef,” the US report said.

The report said though India’s Constitution guarantees the right to religious freedom, “this history of religious freedom has come under attack in recent years with the growth of exclusionary extremist narratives”.

“In 2018, approximately one-third of state governments increasingly enforced anti-conversion and/or anti-cow slaughter laws discriminatorily against non-Hindus and Dalits alike. Further, cow protection mobs engaged in violence predominantly targeting Muslims and Dalits, some of whom have been legally involved in the dairy, leather, or beef trades for generations.

Mob violence was also carried out against Christians under accusations of forced or induced religious conversion,” the report said.

“In 2018, the Supreme Court of India highlighted the deteriorating conditions for religious freedom in some states, concluding that certain state governments were not doing enough to stop violence against religious minorities and, in some extreme instances, impunity was being granted to criminals engaged in communal violence,” it mentioned.

The report also states that the US government should press India to allow a USCIRF delegation to visit the country and meet with stakeholders to evaluate conditions for freedom of religion.