[Source: BBC]

Amnesty International says it has been forced to halt its India operations due to “reprisals” from the government.

The watchdog also accused the government of pursuing a “witch-hunt” against human rights organisations.

Amnesty said its bank accounts had been frozen and it had been forced to lay off staff in the country and suspend all its campaign and research work.

India’s government said in a statement that the accusations were “unfortunate, exaggerated and far from the truth”.

Rajat Khosla, Amnesty’s senior director of research, advocacy and policy, told the BBC: “We are facing a rather unprecedented situation in India.

Amnesty International India has been facing an onslaught of attacks, bullying and harassment by the government in a very systematic manner.

“This is all down to the human rights work that we were doing and the government not wanting to answer questions we raised, whether it’s in terms of our investigations into the Delhi riots, or the silencing of voices in Jammu and Kashmir.”

In a report released last month, the group said police in the Indian capital, Delhi, committed human rights violations during deadly religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in February.

Rebutting the claims, the Delhi police told The Hindu newspaper that Amnesty’s report was “lopsided, biased and malicious”.

Earlier in August, on the first anniversary of the revocation of Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status, Amnesty had called for the release of all detained political leaders, activists and journalists, and for the resumption of high-speed internet services in the region.

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

Responding to Amnesty’s announcement on Tuesday, the government said the group had broken the law by circumventing rules around foreign donations.

“India, by settled law, does not allow interference in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations.” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. “This law applies equally to all and it shall apply to Amnesty International as well.”

The current government has previously stated that Amnesty was being investigated over suspicions that the group was violating foreign funding laws.

“That’s a blatant lie,” Mr Khosla, the Amnesty spokesman, told the BBC. “Amnesty India is in full compliance with all domestic legal requirements and international legal requirements as well,” he said.