#mob violence Jharkhand

[townpostin]

Jamshedpur: Nagadih Mob Lynching Case Hearing Delayed

Four accused absent, court sets new date for statements Jamshedpur court postpones proceedings in 2017 lynching case, warns of arrest warrants for future absentees. JAMSHEDPUR – The Jamshedpur court’s hearing of the notorious Nagadih mob lynching case faced a setback on Tuesday. Four accused individuals failed to appear before ADJ-1 Vimlesh Kumar Sahay’s court, hindering the recording of…

[beardedmrbean]

A court in India has given 10-year jail terms to 10 men for beating a Muslim man to death four years ago.

Tabrez Ansari, 24, died days after being attacked by people who accused him of stealing a motorcycle in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

A video showing Ansari being forced to say chants praising Hindu gods while pleading for his life had gone viral and led to huge outrage in India.

His family alleged that police denied him treatment despite his injuries.

The state police denied any wrongdoing.

The video footage from the night of 19 June 2019 showed a terrified Ansari tied to an electricity pole and being assaulted by the mob, with blood and tears streaming down his face.

His attackers forced him to repeatedly chant "Jai Shri Ram", which translates from Hindi to "hail Lord Ram" or "victory to Lord Ram".

Ansari did as told, but the mob kept assaulting him through the night. He was handed over to police the next day who then arrested him for theft. His family had alleged that they were not allowed to see him.The Hindu chant that became a murder cry Beaten and humiliated for being a Muslim in India

On 22 June, Ansari complained of nausea, vomiting and chest pain and was transferred to a hospital but he died from injuries sustained during the attack.

Last week, trial court Judge Amit Shekhar convicted the 10 men ruling they were "guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder".

The police had been criticised initially for not invoking the more stringent murder charge. Later on they did invoke murder charges against all the accused in a supplementary charge sheet.

However, the judge said there was not enough evidence to convict the accused of murder.

Ansari's lynching by a Hindu mob was not an isolated incident - there have been several similar incidents reported in India in recent years where Muslims have been attacked by so-called "cow vigilantes" over rumours that they had eaten beef, or that they were trying to smuggle cows - an animal many Hindus consider holy - for slaughter. Cow slaughter is illegal in many Indian states.

The attacks on the minority community have been condemned by opposition politicians. Senior Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi had described Ansari's lynching as a "blot on humanity".

Critics say anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They say the prime minister has not condemned such attacks quickly or strongly enough.

The government denies this and points out that days after Ansari's killing, Mr Modi said he was "pained" by the assault.

Earlier too he had said that "killing people in the name of cow was "unacceptable".

[greport2018]

Jharkhand becomes third state to make law against mob lynching

Jharkhand becomes third state to make law against mob lynching

Jharkhand has passed a law against mob violence and lynching. Jharkhand is the third state after Rajasthan and West Bengal where a law has been enacted to prevent mob violence. Recently, cases of lynching are coming from different parts of the country. In such a situation, this law can prove to be a good initiative. What is Jharkhand Prevention of Mob Violence, Mob Lynching bill 2021? In this…

[anastkantdhangar]

Why India’s Social Milieu Needs An Urgent Contemplation

India, traditionally, has been offering astounding variety in virtually every aspect of social life - diversities of ethnic, linguistic, regional, economic, religious, class, and caste groups crosscut Indian society, which gives light to its very inclusive, secular and democratic character. But why there has been a social unrest lately?

India ranks 144th on the World Happiness Index out of a total 156 countries on the list, even behind the likes of Pakistan, ranked 66th, and Bangladesh, ranked 107th.

17th June, 2019, a 24-year old man called Tabrez Ansari was mob-lynched in Jharkhand. He was tied to a pole sometime around midnight, and was beaten brutally till 6 in the morning, and was also forced to chant Hindu sayings. As usual, police arrived late, Tabrez was taken to the hospital, where even his blood pressure was not recorded. He died four days later.

Kashmiri Pandits were victims to a similar unfortunate happening. They were forced to exodus from their own home, and ever since, Kashmir has been even more of a hot topic.

It was a similar mob which chased and killed Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in December, 2018 in Bulandshahr. He was trying to control a mob that had gone on the rampage after cow carcasses were discovered nearby the locality. The same mob also raised slogans against the police during the unfortunate happening.

Back then, between 2015-2018 specifically, such things were done in the name of cows, an animal which holds a religious significance in Hindu mythology. Considerable amount of such happenings on the name of cow slaughtering frequently grabbed news headlines back then, and as a consequence, consumption of beef in India saw some low. When reports of cow being starved to death in official government shelters started coming in, and also about that stray cattle were destroying crops and farmers were not very pleased with it, politics abandoned cows. It is obvious that cows, along with other animals, need to be protected, also given the fact that dairy products are a must, there needs more to be done to protect and nurse them. But the project of fear and violence that had been started, still continues in various forms.

But, unfortunately, cases of mob-lynchings still take place in our beloved India. The very recent case of Palghar district in Maharashtra, where two Hindu saints, while being in police custody and being taken to Gujarat, were attacked by locals. Reports suggest that the rumors were spread in the area about a gang which abducts children, and on the suspicion of the same, the saints were beaten to death, while the act of police standing quietly beside raised many questions.

A particular section of society, including sections of media, left no stone unturned to give it a communal angle. And there is no denying that there are communal and casteist angles to most of such cases, but there is a larger angle to it. The fact that somehow normal and a routine act it has become to lynch anyone you disagree with, who is outnumbered, is a thing which we need to question. What message are we passing on to the youth? Aspiring to be a global superpower, what are we projecting ourselves as?

The Larger Picture

Democracy has space for various views, expressing dissent in a dignified manner, solving issues, but no democracy can justify use of violence or any arbitrary means to deal with dissent. The very feeling of people that they too are ours should not be compromised at any cost.

The fact that the frequency of such acts has increased in last few years outlines that a message has been passed on to the society, especially the youth, that to beat up someone who does not agree with you, or who expresses any or some form of dissent is a normal practice. Of course, there also has to be some manner and dignity in which dissent should be expressed in a democratic society. But to suppress dissent brutally should not be a solution in a civil society.

This the reason why a new debate had acquired the headlines for some time about whether and how India has been growing intolerant rapidly, but the media and the viewers, the public, a large part of it, did not pay much attention to it. This was and is, what I believe, still a relevant question to ask and explore.

A considerable section of the youth has grasped that dissent or disagreement can be or has to be suppressed, even if it needs violence, which is more than worrisome. This is very much evident owing to recent JNU Campus Violence amongst students back in winter during anti-CAA protests. And the youth today, is the future tomorrow, which is why this makes it even more worrisome.

This even stops many from expressing their views, fearing that might get beaten up by the people having other views, and by not letting other ideas to be out there in the society, the prevailing ideas of the authorities are being hailed as champions. This is where we are failing as a democratic society. We have stopped or started to prevent asking questions.

A democratic society is always full of different ideas, views and perspectives, that is the beauty of democracy. A democratic society always cleaves up, if a one and only idea prevails in the society, there has to be something wrong, we are never going to realize what's wrong in such a scenario, and we have contemporary examples of such autocracies. And there were reasons why human, with time, switched from monarchy to democracy, he liked the idea of discussing various angles and coming up with one which could be best, as it will cover as many as loopholes, angles and point of views as possible, for the best of interests for every section of the society.

The Core Youth Issue

India’s 65% population comprises of people aged 35 or below, making it potentially one of the youngest country in the world, but what’s fresh in them? 

A child learns most of the civil and moral values at home, he learns what he sees, and tends to practice the same, this is the normal scenario. What he learns through the education system, along with his moral values, is somewhat an outline of what kind of a person one is, how one’s attitude is. And India’s education system has been questioned ever since.

The Indian government’s very own draft education policy tells us that National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rates 68% of our Universities average or below average, and 91% of our colleges are rated average or below average. These second-and third-grade colleges would have produced generations of average or below average students and scholars.

Today’s youth of India has been in the making for decades. A great deal of efforts must have been put in to finish off all the curiosity and hunger for knowledge and information. The youth no longer wants to understand why a system made them spend lakhs of rupees studying, when at the end most of them could not find jobs which could even earn them Rs.20,000 per month, but still are repaying their education loans. It is the official data released back in 2018 that around 67% families in India survive with a monthly family income of Rs. 10,000 or below.

Those who demand information, who understand their world, those who question the status quo, are the ones who sustain democracies. Can we expect such democratic ideals from the youth of a country where 91% colleges and 68% Universities are average or below average? 65% of Indians might be under the age of 35, but there’s little sign of anything fresh in their thinking. Their minds are not young. They were first burdened with great ignorance, and now they’ve been blinded by communalism.

With 91% colleges being second and third rate, it was inevitable that the youth is kept away from the realm of knowledge. This must have had a large say on why WhatsApp University became so popular, the very messages people received on their private chats must have felt to them that they now had an access to knowledge, the very fact that it was so easily accessible, made it very impactful. Lies and misleading information designed to prejudice them and incite them to violence now began to reach their smartphones as personal texts. 

Fear Of Speaking Out (FOMO FOSO)

Our Lok Sabha has passed amendments to Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act last year, that gives authorities the power to declare any individual a ‘terrorist’. After it was amended, many social workers who have worked for the under-privileged for years, and raised important issues which was not in the best of interests for the authorities, have been imprisoned under UAPA.

As an obvious consequence, many have held themselves back to not speak out on issues they would have spoken on otherwise, the fear of intolerance of some sections of the society which may turn ugly and the fear of trolls of social media of the great IT Cell may also have been the reasons for the same.

There was a very popular dissent outrage in the form of protests in the form of anti-CAA-NRC protests. Protests in cities and college campuses took place across the nation, some also turned ugly as violence broke out in certain protests. To counter anti-CAA-NRC protests, pro-CAA-NRC protests were also being held in various parts of the country, which was first of its kind. The national lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic has brought the topic to a stop, but during this lockdown, various student leaders of anti-CAA-NRC have been charged under UAPA.

JP Narayan addressing a rally during JP movement in 1974. Many scholars speculate that the real Emergency started not in 1975, but in 1974.

In the history of independent India, its hard to remember any other popular mass protest where people across the nation came to roads to express dissent to the authorities, only one such example crosses our minds - the JP Narayan movement in 1974, during the time when Indira Gandhi used to be the PM of India, which mostly included students, and was ultimately suppressed after imposition of Emergency in 1975. But owing to a new practice we have accepted of labeling every sound that questions the authorities as anti-nationals or leftists.

India has had a history of patriarchy, which still prevails in many forms. Women in India, historically, have not been provided equal rights and recognition as men do. In such a nation, be it in the name of anti-CAA-NRC, such a large all-women protest of a scale as big as Shaheen Bagh is a very, very rare thing. Irrespective of our political affiances and interests, the fact that historically deprived women actually came out and led a mass protest on their own, which lasted for more than 3 months and has come to a haul owing to the pandemic, this certainly deserved some thoughts.

Motive of the protest, political interests and such stuffs can be and should be questioned, but in the process we should also give some recognition to things which are rare and important.

We all may share different political thoughts, different political affiliations, but at the end of the day, we all belong to one nation, and our ideas should be for the best of interests for our nation and its people as a whole.

[newstfionline]

Rising Hate In India

By Annie Gowen and Manas Sharma, Washington Post, Oct. 31, 2018

Alimuddin Ansari, a van driver, knew the risks. Smuggling beef in India, where the slaughter of cows is illegal in some states, is dangerous work, and Ansari eventually attracted the notice of Hindu extremists in Jharkhand.

One hot day in June 2017, they tracked him to a crowded market. When he arrived with a van full of beef, the lynch mob was waiting.

Reports of religious-based hate-crime cases have spiked in India since the pro-Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, according to new data from IndiaSpend, which tracks reports of violence in English-language media. The data shows that Muslims are overwhelmingly the victims and Hindus the perpetrators of the cases reported.

The government of India does not record religious-based hate crimes as separate offenses and so does not provide data on the category. The government does monitor incidents of communal violence--such as riots between religious communities--and has data that shows such incidents rose 28 percent between 2014 and 2017.

Some of the violence in the reported cases centers on cows because Hindus--nearly 80 percent of India’s population--believe the animals are sacred, and many states have laws that protect them from slaughter. Violent “cow vigilante” groups patrol the roads, beating and killing those suspected of smuggling beef.

Modi has said that state governments should punish these vigilantes and that his administration is committed to upholding the law, but critics say his party has emboldened Hindu extremists across the country. And the data supports that trend: More than half of the cases reported this year through October came from three states in northern India--Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand--where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, enjoys strong support.

The vigilantes had been tracking Ansari for over a week. Early on the morning of June 29, 2017, a tea stall owner who had been working as an informer for the vigilantes called with a tip that Ansari was headed to the market in a white van full of beef, according to the judge’s ruling in the case and suspects’ statements to police. Deepak Mishra, a Brahmin priest, sent a WhatsApp message to a group of vigilantes calling them to the scene, court documents show.

The vigilantes trailed the van on their motorbikes, then stopped Ansari at the crowded market, pulling him from the driver’s seat, according to court records. They beat him with bamboo sticks and a fiber rod.

“I started hitting him with my fists and kicking him,” Mishra recounted, according to his statement to police. “I hit him in the stomach and on his chest.”

A video of the scene shows the mob jeering, kicking and slapping a dazed Ansari. Eventually, they overturned his van and set it ablaze, spilling raw beef across the road. The sight of the meat only seemed to inflame the mob, the prosecutor said. They shouted “Beat, beat beat him more!”

When police arrived, the men scattered, but it was too late for Ansari. He lost consciousness in an ambulance and was pronounced dead on the way to a hospital. The postmortem report said Ansari died of shock as a result of multiple injuries.

Ansari’s killing played out in almost real time on WhatsApp, the global messaging platform that is widely used in India, its largest market, and has increasingly become a vehicle for the spread of hate speech and incendiary fake news there and elsewhere.

His wife, Mariam Khatoon, and son watched the killing unfold on the phones of their neighbors, who had gathered in a shocked group outside the family’s modest concrete dwelling in the town of Ramgarh that morning.

“My father was a good man. When money was scarce, he did not eat so we could eat,” said his son Shahzad Akhtar, 22, a student. “Seeing him killed right in front of us, on screen, was agony.”

Harsh Mander, director of the Center for Equity Studies in New Delhi, said the perpetrators film these lynchings and post online to communicate a threatening message to the victims, who are often minorities or from lower-caste communities.

Modi’s career has been shadowed by allegations of religious intolerance since 2002, when he, as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, was accused of failing to do enough to stop Hindu-Muslim riots that killed more than 1,000. For this, he was denied a visa to visit the United States on religious-freedom grounds, making the trip only after he became prime minister in 2014.

In an interview with The Post in 2012, Modi showed little regret for what happened in Gujarat. “I have not done anything wrong,” he said, “and I am committed to the human cause.”

Now, in a string of incidents, his party members have been accused of supporting or even inciting violence against Muslims, leaving many in the country’s Muslim community of 172 million--the third largest in the world--fearful.

In some of the lynching cases, members of Modi’s party or its right-wing affiliates incited or organized the mobs or praised the killers after the fact.

Eleven men and one juvenile suspected in Ansari’s death were arrested and charged with murder. In March, the adults were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, prompting protests; their supporters claim Ansari died because he was beaten in police custody. All but the juvenile have since been released on appeal; one of the convicted men has died in an unrelated accident.

The high court judge who ordered the release of the first seven men noted that although they were members of the mob, there was a lack of evidence against them in the assault. Later, even those convicted of the conspiracy were released on bail.

[srd772]

Xenophobia in India

Specific Issue of Public Concern 

In recent years, with the changes in power in Indian politics, there has been an ever-growing problem of xenophobia and violence against the Muslim population. Muslims have been increasingly at risk of xenophobic violence since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, first took control after winning the 2014 elections. Prior to the 2014 elections, Indians of any and all faiths had been protected peacefully against the laws which protect secularism and equality. But since Narendra Modi and his administration took office, BJP leaders have repeatedly made Hindu nationalist and anti-Muslim remarks in their interviews and speeches. These remarks have provoked BJP and Hindu nationalist supporters, making the lives of Muslim people living in India quite dangerous. “Government policy has also reflected bias against Muslims. Since October 2018, Indian authorities have deported over a dozen Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar despite the risks to their lives and security”. Additionally, police forces have failed to intervene when supporters of the BJP are speaking publicly inciting violence or mob attacks. On the contrary, the police are very quick to arrest anyone who publicly criticizes the government. Now, taking a step back and looking at India through a broader lens, it can be seen that violence against religious minority groups did not start with Narendra Modi and the BJP government. India’s Sikhs have experienced harassment, legal deprivation, and attacks. The Christian religion in India, brought about by the British East India Company, is negatively viewed by Indians because of the association with British rule, colonization, and forced religion. Fast forward to today, the majority of xenophobic violence is projected towards Muslims as Hindu nationalist, Modi, has brought about a movement of “ethnic cleansing” to the country. 

Why It Matters 

The issue of xenophobic violence matters and should not be taken lightly. Times Magazine put out a story in June 2019 referencing a video taken of a 24-year-old Muslim man by the name of Tabrez Ansari “tied up, bleeding profusely all over his body, hands folded, was being lynched by a mob that forced him to chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’ (Glory to Lord Ram ad Lord Hanuman)”. ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is a rallying cry for Hindu nationalists in India. This viral video was the first hate crime of Narendra Modi’s second term as Prime Minister. Ansari died at the hands of a Hindu mob in the eastern state of Jharkhand. The same week Ansari passed away, there were two other acts of violence against Muslim men in different parts of India. It has been found that as many as 90% of religious hate crimes since 2009 have occurred after Modi and the BJP took power in 2014. During his acceptance speech, Modi addressed the members of the new Indian Parliament, promising to protect the interests of all Indian minority groups, though the words turned out to be nothing more than deception. The lives of hundreds of millions of Muslims in India are in danger every day as India “becomes immersed in hate to fulfill the opportunistic ambitions of a leader who raises Hindu nationalist slogans”. 

Who It Affects  

Specific to this day and age, Muslims in India are the main targets for hate crimes being provoked by Hindu nationalist supporters. Throughout the country there have been Islamaphobic ads in newspapers, calls for genocide against Muslims, and an app called Bulli Bai created to sexualize and humiliate Muslim women. Al Jazeera wrote that “India’s far-right Prime Minister Narendra Modi made connections between Muslim figures from India’s distant history and current-day “terrorism and religious extremism” in two of his public speeches”. Having a Prime Minister fueling hatred towards Muslims, showing his support and encouragement of far-right Hindu nationalists, makes it clear that Muslims are no longer seen as equal citizens in India. 

From: Time Magazine. Indian Muslims hold a banner as they protest against the mob lynching of Tabrez Ansari in the Jharkhand state, in Ahmedabad on June 26, 2019. Sam Panthaky—AFP/Getty Images

[townpostin]

Nagadih Lynching Accused Claims False Implication in Court

Mukhiya Rajaram Hansda testifies he was framed for refusing to name suspects An accused in the 2017 Nagadih mob lynching case testified in court, claiming police falsely implicated him. JAMSHEDPUR – Mukhiya Rajaram Hansda, an accused in the 2017 Nagadih mob lynching case, testified in the court of ADJ-1 Vimlesh Kumar Sahay, claiming police falsely implicated him. Hansda, jailed since June 2017,…

[shivahadi]

#The Jharkhand Assembly on Tuesday passed the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021 amid opposition by the BJP. The Bill aims to provide effective protection of Constitutional rights and prevention of mob violence. It includes provisions like registering an FIR for disseminating “explosive and irresponsible” content, providing free medical care to victims and punishment for creating a “hostile environment” for victims or witnesses. It also sets out a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25 lakh for anyone found guilty of lynching or its abatement. “Where the act leads to the victim suffering grievous hurt, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and with fine which shall not be less than three lakh rupees and may extend up to five lakh rupees,” the provisions of the proposed Bill, a draft of which is with PTI, states. With this development, Jharkhand has now become the third Indian state – after West Bengal and Rajasthan – to have passed a dedicated anti-lynching bill. #antilynchingbill #hemantsoren #jharkhand #bill #mobviolence #india #visionforcitizens #citizensconnected #Vision For Hope (at India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CXwP6kwvEkXpL2c-TJ9zJzUUTE-DYw6CcrGTiI0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mfvansh]

Rahul Gandhi Amit Malviya Twitter War On Mob Lynching,jharkhand Law Against Lynching The Jharkhand Prevention Of Mob Violence And Mob Lynching Bill 2021 What Is The Provision Of The Bill - Mob Lynching: राहुल-मालवीय के ट्वीटर वार के बीच क्यों हो रही झारखंड में मॉब लिंचिंग पर बनने वाले कानून की चर्चा, क्या है प्रावधान

Rahul Gandhi Amit Malviya Twitter War On Mob Lynching,jharkhand Law Against Lynching The Jharkhand Prevention Of Mob Violence And Mob Lynching Bill 2021 What Is The Provision Of The Bill – Mob Lynching: राहुल-मालवीय के ट्वीटर वार के बीच क्यों हो रही झारखंड में मॉब लिंचिंग पर बनने वाले कानून ���ी चर्चा, क्या है प्रावधान

सार इस तरह की हिंसा का मामला दर्ज होने के बाद, पुलिस को पीड़ितों को लिखित रूप में जांच की प्रगति के बारे में सूचित करना होगा। साथ ही  यह बताना होगा  संदिग्ध आरोपी का नाम प्राथमिकी के 30 दिनों के भीतर प्रदान शामिल किया जाएगा।  झारखंड के मुख्यमंत्री हेमंत सोरेन (फाइल फोटो) – फोटो : Facebook ख़बर सुनें ख़बर सुनें कांग्रेस के पूर्व अध्यक्ष राहुल गांधी ने लिंचिंग को लेकर केंद्र की मोदी सरकार पर…

[theresgloryforyou]

AT LEAST Ramkanya Sen is alive. The grandmother spent three weeks locked in a windowless storeroom in the searing heat, refusing to eat, until a tip-off alerted a journalist to her predicament. The rescue came just in time, say doctors who revived Ms Sen (pictured) at a government hospital in Bhilwara, a small city in southern Rajasthan. Sent home in August, she is still weak, shaken and disoriented, but safe for now.

Indian police records suggest that on average more than 150 less lucky women die every year for the same reason that Ms Sen was locked away: being fingered as a dayan (witch). They are burned, hacked or bludgeoned to death, typically by mobs made up of their neighbours and, sometimes, their own relatives. Ritual humiliation often precedes death. A suspected witch may expect to be stripped naked, smeared with filth, dragged by her hair and forced to eat excrement. Kanya Devi, from a village 120km north of Bhilwara, had all those things done to her on August 2nd. The 40-year-old mother of two was also blinded with red-hot coals and severely beaten. She did not survive.

Tara Ahluwalia, the head of an NGO in Bhilwara that defends women from violence, says that of the 86 witch-hunts she has documented in the past two decades in the surrounding district, which has a population of 2m, only three have led to death. Yet nearly all the cases have ended with severe and lasting ostracism, or forced banishment. “The worst thing is the social stigma,” she says. Whole families suffer, she explains: no one will marry into them and they often end up feuding with one another when it turns out that a close relative was after the supposed dayan’s land.

To own a property that someone else covets is one of several risk factors. Being a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable), or belonging to a caste that happens to be both lowly and uncommon in the area, does not help. The family of Ms Sen, for instance, belongs to a “helper” class. Her husband is a barber, a profession considered unclean. They were the sole Dalits among 60 households of Jats, a poor but proud landowning community.

The trouble started when Pooja, a 16-year-old Jat girl, developed pains in her belly. Her family took her to a bhopa, or shaman, who quickly detected witchery. Either Pooja herself or someone else suggested the source might be Ms Sen, who sometimes sits on a doorstep close to Pooja’s school, and had acted a bit oddly since accidentally banging her head a few years ago.

Witch murders are concentrated across the centre of India, in the largely rural states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. All have large populations of tribal peoples, among whom illiteracy is common.

Five Indian states have passed laws that explicitly penalise accusations of witchcraft, and in some cases can punish entire communities. But the example of Rajasthan, which passed one of the most comprehensive such laws in 2015, is dispiriting. Despite the filing of 50 cases since then—seven by Ms Ahluwalia herself—not one has been prosecuted. “Now that we have one, why aren’t they using the law?” she asks. “Because the police have no will to act.” That said, she notes that the problem is often better dealt with by reconciliation.

Ms Sen, for her part, does not seem to want the police to get involved. It is all too confusing. The Jats had first warned her family to banish her or keep her out of sight. Then they came in a mob, beat her husband and threatened to burn down the house, until her three sons calmed them with a promise that they would imprison their own mother. So who is the criminal? Besides, says Ms Sen, “I am old and my children and grandchildren have to live here.”

[bigyack-com]

Stage set for penultimate round of Jharkhand assembly election today - assembly elections

The fourth and penultimate round of Jharkhand elections is slated to take place on Monday, with 221 candidates across 15 assembly seats in the fray. Of the 15 constituencies that will go to polls in the latest phase, five are in Maoist-affected regions, officials familiar with the matter said. “There are few pockets in this phase which are affected by Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). Of a total of 6,101 polling stations across 15 constituencies, 587 stations are hyper-LWE-sensitive and 405 are LWE-sensitive,” said state chief electoral officer Vinay Kumar Choubey. The third phase of state elections was hit by violence as one person was killed and eight others injured after a mob clashed with security forces at a polling booth. In a separate incident, suspected Maoists had opened fire on returning poll officials. Choubey said they have taken necessary steps to ensure safety of officials deployed on poll duty in the fourth phase. “Polling officials of 75 polling stations falling under LWE-affected areas have been provided helicopter-drop the facility, while officials of 136 polling stations were taken to their cluster on Saturday,” he added.In the 2014 assembly elections, the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 11 of the 15 seats that vote on Monday. Prominent political leaders, including state’s revenue, registration, and land reform minister Amar Kumar Bauri and labour, employment and training minister Raj Paliwar, are contesting in the fourth round of voting. Four seats— Nirsa, Bagodar, Sindri and Tundi — that are going to poll in this phase have traditionally been Left strongholds. Read the full article

[mensrightsff]

One Side: Now, Assam: Doctor lynched to death by Mob. Earlier in June, Doctors attacked in: -Bengal -Kerala -Jharkhand -MP Other Side: Like last year, this year too Mob violence is happening across India due to Child-lifting rumors. And, Both Central & State Govts are sleeping

— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) September 5, 2019

[optimisticprincepainter]

US COMMISSION FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM STRONGLY CONDEMNED THE LYNCHING OF A MUSLIM MAN IN JHARKHAND :

US COMMISSION FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM STRONGLY CONDEMNED THE LYNCHING OF A MUSLIM MAN IN JHARKHAND :

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom strongly condemned the lynching of a Muslim man in Jharkhand and called on the government to take concrete actions to prevent this kind of violence and intimidation.Tabrez Ansari, 24, was allegedly tied to a pole and thrashed with sticks by a mob at Dhatkidih village in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district last Wednesday on the suspicion…