South Asia Citizens Web

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism condemns the killing of Amarnath pilgrims near Anantnag in Kashmir valley. This heinous crime has come at especially sensitive time for Kashmir and the rest of India. There is a real danger that in the aftermath of this attack both Kashmir and the rest of India get sucked into a vicious cycle of violence against innocent citizens.

We strongly condemn the firing on the bus carrying Amarnath Yatris which ended in the tragic death of seven pilgrims and injury to 18 others.

The recent unhindered violence at Baduria and adjoining Basirhat in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district was reportedly perpetrated by Muslim mobs, protesting against an objectionable post denigrating Islam, its Prophet and holy place by a Hindu teenager from the area. The violence not only weakens the democratic-secular narrative against rising Hindutva violence on Muslims, Christians and Dalits but also provides the RSS another opportunity to pose as the defender of “persecuted” Hindus.

Members of Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sanghathan (SPSS) / MGNREGA Watch, a collective of about 10,000 rural workers of Muzaffarpur, Bihar have been facing continuous harassment at the hands of the local administration because of their fight against corruption in government programmes. So far the harassment has taken the form of threats, violence, false FIRs and under-payment of NREGA wages.