Amnesty International while noticing the state access against minorities in India said the state machinery keeps on detaining, torturing and even killing members of minorities on one or the other pretext. In its annual report for the year 2009 the international human rights organisation said more than 70 minority people were detained without charge for periods ranging from one week to two months in connection with terrorism in several states throughout the year."
On the anti-Christian riots in Orissa, Amnesty International said that police either failed to act or used excessive force resulting in the fatal shooting of 15 people when the minority community was protesting, a foreign television channel reported. In at least two camps for the displaced in Orissa, the report claimed "Christians continued to be subjected to violent attacks by supporters of Hindu nationalist organisations, however no judicial enquiries have been completed."
"Police used excessive force to deal with the protests by various communities and shot dead more than 60 people," it claimed. The international human rights body said, in West Bengal, the government acquired land without 'prior and informed' consent of the farmers leading to protests in which 30 people were injured.
The report also mentions the attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra saying that the police were slow to stop the attacks and arrest suspected perpetrators. In a veiled reference to the ruling CPI(M) in the state, it said, "Police failed to protect protestors when private militia reportedly allied with ruling political parties violently suppressed the protests."
Members of Dalit communities continued to face attacks and discrimination, the report said, adding that authorities failed to use existing special laws enacted to prosecute perpetrators of ethnic violence. On the Amarnath protests, the report noted that central security forces shot and killed at least 40 people who defied curfew restrictions. The protests erupted over a Jammu and Kashmir government's proposal to transfer forestland to Amarnath shrine board for development activities.
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