(Excerpts from statement by All India Lawyers’ Association For Justice (AILAJ))

The protests (by Muslims against Islamophobic hate-speech) that were witnessed in nine states and union territories, were followed by numerous reported instances of arbitrary police brutality against Muslim protesters including children, revealing unchecked abuse of power and rampant institutional bigotry.

In Ranchi, Jharkhand the police not only lathi-charged the protesters but open-fired at them, injuring 10 Muslim protesters and killing at least 2 persons, 22 year old Mohammad Mudassir Alam and 24-year-old Mohammad Sahil. Incidentally the kin of Mohammad Mudassir Alam and Mohammad Sahil have denied that they were part of the protest and that Mohammad Mudassir Alam is a minor. A twitter post enclosing a video reports that the police chased a minor Muslim boy stranded after the protest as they beat him and threw stones and fired bullets at him.

In Uttar Pradesh, the police shelled tear gas and beat the protesters.1 It is also reported that more than 400 Muslims were arrested in Uttar Pradesh alone. NDTV has posted a video of what appears to be a police station in Saharanpur where around nine Muslim men beg and try to block blows raining incessantly on them from two policemen armed with sticks. The video was shared by Shalabh Mani Tripathi, an Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA on Twitter with the caption “return gift for rioters”, which has triggered criticism of the cops and allegations of police brutality by the opposition.

The family members of student activist, Afreen Fatima were forcefully detained from their residence by the Allahabad police on 10th June. Her father, Javed Muhammed who is also an activist was arrested. Thereafter the demolition of their house was initiated by the Prayagraj Development Authorities and took place amidst tight police security. In Saharanpur, parts of the houses of accused Muzammil and Abdul Waqir were demolished, while in Kanpur the property belonging to Mohammad Ishtiyaq, who the police said, was linked to Zafar Hayat Hashmi, an accused in the violent protests that took place in Kanpur on June 3. Reports state that more demolitions could be expected in the days to come in Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Hathras, Kanpur and other places that had witnessed large scale protests on 10th June.

The manner in which the police is required to respond to crowds has been clearly spelt out in law. The fundamental principle is that action taken against it ought to be proportional. As such the use of violence was unjustified and excessive and resulted in the violation of the rights of the persons. The targeted attack on Muslim persons also shows that the State acted in a vindictive manner.

Furthermore, all of these actions, cannot but be contrasted with the partisan behavior of the police, when Hindu supremacist organisations used the occasion of Ram Navami in April this year, to showcase their belligerent Hindu majoritarianism politics in several parts of the country through loud provocative processions armed with weapons, songs and slogans especially in front of Mosques and areas with majority Muslims populations. These are indicators of a communalizing of the police force and does not augur well for our democracy, where the police is expected to imbibe constitutional morality and behave in a non-partisan manner.

In this context, AILAJ demands the following:

1. Release of all protesters arbitrarily arrested
2. Registration of criminal cases and initiation of disciplinary action against the all police personnel who indulged in use of excess force or who acted contrary to prescribed procedures, irrespective of rank.
3. Contempt proceedings to be initiated against the police officials who have acted in contravention of Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar [AIR 2014 SC 2756]
4. Immediate access to free medical treatment for all injured persons and payment of compensation to those injured.
5. Immediate payment of ex-gratia compensation to the families of protestors who were killed.
6. Immediate halting of the demolition of the homes of accused Muslims.