Minorities in India felt increasingly vulnerable in 2017: US report

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ Members of civil society and religious minorities in India were concerned over minority communities feeling ‘increasingly vulnerable’ due to Hindu nationalist groups engaging in violence against them in 2017, a United States report on international religious freedom said. The Congressional-mandated annual report on International Religious Freedom covering 2017 was released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

According to the report, representatives of religious minority communities stated that, while the national government sometimes spoke out against incidents of violence, local political leaders often did not, and at times made public remarks that individuals could interpret as condoning violence.

‘Members of civil society and religious minorities stated that under the current government, religious minority communities felt increasingly vulnerable due to Hindu nationalist groups engaging in violence against non-Hindu individuals and their places of worship,’ the report said.

‘Authorities often did not prosecute violence by vigilantes against persons, mostly Muslims, suspected of slaughtering or illegally transporting cows or trading in or consuming beef,’ the report said. Citing some court cases such as triple talaq, it said many long-standing legal cases involving religiously motivated violence and riots continued to advance slowly.